Today, the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy of South Korea announced that Samsung Electronics will transfer 276 patented technologies to small and medium-sized businesses free of charge this year.
Particularly, the Ministry issued a statement, in which we read that they accepted applications from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) wishing to get 276 patents owned by Samsung Electronics for free. Samsung Electronics will start the transfer on May 11 and finish it on May 13.
In fact, this is not the first time that a tech giant transfers its unused technologies to SMEs. The Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy has been conducting such technology-sharing activities since 2013. There have been up to 25 large corporations, including Samsung Electronics, that shared their technologies with smaller firms. In total, 1043 SMEs received 2402 patented technologies until last year.
Further reading: Samsung Patented New Partially Folding Screen Smartphone Design
How Do SMEs Benefit From These Transfers
Our readers might think if Samsung considers it useless, what a benefit they will bring to smaller companies. However, a South Korean company, a manufacturer of automatic external defibrillators (AED), previously developed the world’s first Internet of Things (IoT)-based integrated monitoring device. What’s more important, it used Samsung Electronics’ “service sharing over network” technology free of charge. Another company designed smartphone-controlled mailboxes developed by transferring Samsung Electronics’ OTP-based security authentication (Bluetooth smart key) technology.
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Samsung Electronics decided to additionally transfer 276 unused patent technologies in 7 sectors this year. These patents include 140 technologies for the mobile device sector, 45 technologies for the communication/network sector, 34 for semiconductors, 27 for displays, 15 for home appliances, 10 for medical devices, and 10 for audio/video.
“It is an opportunity for our SMEs to achieve innovative growth by using the technology developed by Samsung Electronics, a world-class company,” said Roh Geon-ki, director of industrial technology convergence policy at the Ministry of Industry.
Samsung Shared More Unused Technologies Before
Prior to this, Samsung Electronics transferred much more technologies to SMEs. For instance, last year, it shared its 505 patented technologies with local small and medium enterprises. There were 213 mobile technologies, 68 semiconductor technologies, 68 display technologies, 45 telecommunications technologies, 31 medical equipment technologies, and others.
A year earlier, in 2020, the South Korea-based first-tier tech company transferred 135 technologies free of charge to 78 SMEs suffering from the COVID-19 crisis.
“The technologies that will be transferred this time include those related to artificial intelligence and smart devices. We expect that they will help SMEs develop convergence products or non-face-to-face services.”
In fact, “Technology Sharing” is a special project aiming at shared growth between large and small companies.