This photo provided by food and chemical conglomerate Samyang Group shows the company’s newly developed biodegradable plastics.
DAEJEON, May 16 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of patent applications in the area of biodegradable plastic is growing at a rapid pace with plastic waste emerging as a major social issue in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, data showed Sunday.
The number of biodegradable plastic-related patent applications stood at 190 in 2020, double the 97 filed in 2016, according to the Korea Intellectual Property Office.
In other words, the number of such patent applications registered an annual growth rate of 18 percent over the past five years.
The number of the patents applied for by Koreans also doubled from 78 in 2016 to 158 in 2020, while applications from foreigners fluctuated during the same period.
Businesses accounted for the largest share with 68 percent of the patent applications, followed by individuals at 14 percent, universities at 12 percent and research institutes at 5 percent.
LG Chem Ltd. ranked first with 24 patent applications, followed by Samyang Group with 15, the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology with 14, Lotte Chemical Corp. with 14, KingFa Science & Technology Co. with 12 and BASF S.E. with nine.
Classifying the patents by the ingredient of biodegradable plastic used by the applicants during the four years from 2016 to 2019, the ester group accounted for 60.3 percent or 47 applications, followed by the carbonate group with 20.5 percent or 16 applications, the ester-carbonate compound group with 6.4 percent or 5 applications, and others with 12.8 percent or 10 applications.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
