국제특허분류(IPC)의 융복합성 분석과 심사·심판에의 활용방안에 관한 연구

As the fusion between technologies has been accelerated, the boundary between industries has become blurred, new products have rapidly come to the market, and a huge amount of patent documents are annually published. As with Korea, more than 170,000 patents are annually filed, and as patents filed overseas being considered, its amounts could be beyond our imagination. Thus, a research on the fusion between technologies, which is described in patent documents, is really important. The object of this research is to establish a new concept of technologies-convergence and integration in the patent field and to analyze the extent where technologies are integrated and converged within the International Patent Classification. First, the research has focused on establishing a concept related to technologies-convergence and integration in the patent field. Second, the research has analyzed the extent where technologies are integrated and converged within the International Patent Classification, based on a specified code of International Patent Classification. The research has established a concept of technologies-convergence and integration and suggested a methodology for measuring the extent where technologies are integrated and converged of four technology fields in the International Patent Classification. Firstly, unlike previous researches, which explained the phenomenon of convergence and integration academically, the research is significant in establishing a concept of technologies-convergence and integration in the patent field. The research is very important in analyzing the extent where technologies are integrated and converged on the sub-group of the IPC. In order to analyze how much each technology of the IPC code is converged and integrated, the research has suggested a way to discern between a code for technologies-convergence and integration(in progress) and a code for non-integration and non-convergence, through various indexes measuring the extent where technologies are integrated and converged, by using common classification analysis utilizing main classification/sub classification of patent documents. The research shows the results as such; first, by selecting a proper index representing the extent where technologies are integrated and converged, the IPC can be classified into 3 types for each technology, such as a code for technologies-integration and convergence(finished), a code for a code for technologies-convergence and integration(in progress), a code for non-integration and non-convergence. As for a code for technologies-integration and convergence(finished) and a code for a code for technologies-convergence and integration(in progress), through the research results, the extent where technologies are integrated and converged of each technology can be recognized. Moreover, through the ratio of the total number of codes to a code for technologies-integration and convergence(finished), the rate of integration and convergence(%) of the IPC can be also measured.