국내 특허분석을 통한 기능성이 적용된 의복의 기술 동향

Patent and utility indicate international competitiveness in the knowledge-based society of the 21stcenturywhere both the quantity and quality of the nation’s scientific intelligence and innovative technology represent key criteriato evaluate its strength. Thus, discerning the trends of patents is inevitable for further development. This research is centeredon apprehending the technological current of the functional clothing of Korea, through an analysis of patents andutility models. The number of patent applications in Korea was low until the mid-1990s. However, it began to grow rapidlyin the 2000s and the number of patents surpassed the number of utility starting in 2006. The technological level of inventionin this field has been turned into a higher level. The IPC code with the strongest application was the field relatedto 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 couldprotect the human body from various hazards and represents the goal of various applied techniques. About 66% of domesticpatent applications belong to individuals; however, the proportion of corporate or institutional applications(includinguniversities) remains poor. Consequently, more systematic and long-term support for research on patents is required.