S. Korea's intellectual property balance logs surplus in first half of year

SEOUL, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's intellectual property trade balance logged a surplus in the first half owing to an expanded copyright surplus, central bank data showed Friday.

Trade in intellectual property rights recorded a surplus of 330 million U.S. dollars for the first six months of this year, after posting a surplus of 310 million dollars in the first half of last year, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

It marked the second-highest surplus compared with the highest surplus of 350 million dollars tallied in the second half of 2019.

The deficit in the trade of industrial property rights, including patents, surged to 1.08 billion dollars in the first half from 370 million dollars a year earlier.

Among the industrial property rights, the trade deficit in patent and utility model rights gained from 110 million dollars to 570 million dollars in the cited period.

The trademark and franchise rights deficit increased from 320 million dollars to 520 million dollars in the period.

The surplus in the trade of copyrights hit a record high of 1.52 billion dollars in the first half, almost doubling from 810 million dollars in the first half of last year.

Of the copyrights, the surplus in the culture and arts copyrights grew from 140 million dollars to 340 million dollars in the cited period, while the research and development, and software copyrights surplus jumped from 670 million dollars to 1.18 billion dollars.

By industry, manufacturers tallied a surplus of 1.07 billion dollars in the intellectual property rights trade, while the services companies posted a deficit of 820 million dollars in the first half.