Evaluating patent tendency for UAV related to spatial information in South Korea

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is very quickly emerging as a new platform for spatial information to operate in the research and development (R&D) field for the last few years. This paper presents mega-trends for patent registration to explore appropriate R&D strategy on UAV related to spatial information in South Korea. In order to analyze mega-trends of UAV technologies, patent analysis is conducted focusing on published/registered patents of South Korea. Total numbers of UAV patents gradually increased in 2006–2015, and rapidly increased in 2016. About 1/5 of the total UAV patents related to spatial information were registered by major government research institutes, mainly related to aviation industries. The most interesting finding was that non-typical spatial information companies were actively registering UAV patent utilizing spatial information (e.g., solar power, agriculture, facility management etc.) during last 2 or 3 years. The results serve as a valuable resource for UAV R&D decision-making in spatial information-related organizations by presenting UAV patent registration trends in South Korea.