Technological Trend of Functional Clothing by Analysis of Korean Patent

Patent and utility indicate international competitiveness in the knowledge-based society of the 21 st century where both the quantity and quality of the nation's scientific intelligence and innovative technology represent key criteria to evaluate its strength. Thus, discerning the trends of patents is inevitable for further development. This research is cen- tered on apprehending the technological current of the functional clothing of Korea, through an analysis of patents and utility models. The number of patent applications in Korea was low until the mid-1990s. However, it began to grow rapidly in the 2000s and the number of patents surpassed the number of utility starting in 2006. The technological level of inven- tion in this field has been turned into a higher level. The IPC code with the strongest application was the field related to temperature controllable clothing (A41D 13/005), followed by surgeon or patient apparel related fields (A41D 13/12), and reflective or luminous safety devices (A41D 13/01).The main technological idea was to give functionality that could protect the human body from various hazards and represents the goal of various applied techniques. About 66% of domes- tic patent applications belong to individuals; however, the proportion of corporate or institutional applications(including universities) remains poor. Consequently, more systematic and long-term support for research on patents is required.