Korean inventions filed in the US rose 46%
KR → US+46%KR → JP+38%KR → EP+24%KR → CN+17%CN → US+12%EP → KR+9%EP → US+8%CN → JP+7%CN → KR+6%CN → EP+6%EP → JP+5%JP → KR+4%JP → US+2%US → KR+2%US → JP+1%US → EP-1%JP → EP-2%JP → CN-3%US → CN-5%EP → CN-9%
152Kpatent families in the busiest corridorCN→US
+46%the fastest-growing corridorKR→US
25%of CN → US work goes to ten firms in the USCN→US
Corridors
Firms sending work from Japan
| # | Firm | Share | Breadth | Openness | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | · | Mori Hamada & Matsumoto | 105 | 8.5% | -1.15 | 3 | 0 | |
| 2 | · | TMI Associates Osaka Office | 91 | 7.4% | +4.10 | 6 | 1 | |
| 3 | ▲8 | 弁理士法人BORDERS IP | 39 | 3.2% | +1.38 | 0 | 0 | |
| 4 | ▼1 | Kurokawa Tomoya Patent Office | 37 | 3.0% | -0.05 | 3 | 0 | |
| 5 | ▼1 | HIKARI PATENT OFFICE | 29 | 2.3% | -0.40 | 2 | 0 | |
| 6 | ▲23 | Minatomirai Patent Office | 24 | 1.9% | +1.05 | 1 | 0 | |
| 7 | · | Nakamura Joint Patent & Law Office Tokyo | 23 | 1.9% | -0.29 | 2 | 0 | |
| 7 | ▲2 | SHIGA International Patent Office | 23 | 1.9% | +0.01 | 2 | 0 | |
| 9 | ▲128 | Eiko Patent Office | 22 | 1.8% | +1.63 | 1 | 1 | |
| 10 | ▲2 | Nishimura & Asahi | 20 | 1.6% | -0.01 | 2 | 0 | |
+284 ranked firmsFull table | ||||||||
Families each firm handled, 2023–2025. Arrows show the rank change since 2020–2022.
Technology
| Overall | 1–5Chemicals and health | 6–8, 12–13Metals, machines and vehicles | 9–11Electronics and instruments | 14–21, 28Household, leisure and materials | 22–27Textiles and clothing | 29–34Food and drink | 35–38, 42Business and technology services | 39–41, 43–45Transport, education and personal services | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mori Hamada & Matsumoto | #1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| TMI Associates Osaka Office | #2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 弁理士法人BORDERS IP | #3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Kurokawa Tomoya Patent Office | #4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 9 | 10 |
| Minatomirai Patent Office | #6 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 8 |
Rank in each Nice class group, by trademark filings 2023–2025. Overall: rank in the whole corridor, shown as a band beyond 10th.
Applicants
| # | Applicant | Families | Offices per family |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mitsubishi Electric Corporation | 3,168 | 1.89 |
| 2 | MURATA MANUFACTURING CO | 1,201 | 1.98 |
| 3 | CANON KK | 1,161 | 2.11 |
| 4 | FANUC CORP | 1,010 | 1.98 |
| 5 | JAPAN TELECOMMUNICATION TELEPHONE JOINT STOCK AGENCY | 851 | 1.65 |
| 6 | NIPPON STEEL CORP | 774 | 3.30 |
| 7 | NTT DOCOMO INC | 743 | 2.09 |
| 8 | KYOCERA CORP | 728 | 2.47 |
| 9 | SONY GROUP CORP | 682 | 2.35 |
| 10 | JFE STEEL CORP | 616 | 3.42 |
+954 ranked applicants | |||
Top 10 by patent families filed abroad, 2020–2022.
Method
| Measure | What it counts | Minimum |
|---|---|---|
| Volume | Families a firm handled in the corridor | 10 families |
| Momentum | Change in market share since the previous period | 10 families |
| Breadth | Firms on the other side it worked with | 10 families, 3 partners |
| Openness | Partners that are new in the last two years | 10 families, 3 partners |
| Reach | Other IP5 offices an applicant files in, per family | 100 families |
SourcesPublished records of the IP5 offices and EUIPO
PeriodsPatents: 2020–2022 vs 2017–2019, by priority year. Trademarks: 2023–2025 vs 2020–2022, by filing year.
Not rankedIndividuals, in-house IP teams, applicant–firm pairs
Ranks come from the data only. Subscriptions, payments and partnerships never change a rank.
Corrections close on December 2, 2026. The corrected edition is 2026.1.No corrections yetReport an error