KT&G (CEO Baek Bok In) was awarded the Prime Minister's Commendation on the 31st in recognition of its contribution to the development of national industry at the 56th Invention Day commemoration ceremony.

Being hosted by the Korean Intellectual Property Office and organized by the Korea Invention Promotion Association, this event was prepared to reward individuals and organizations that contributed to the promotion of inventions in Korea. The purpose of this event is to encourage people to create increasingly innovative inventions and to contribute more toward the development of the country’s industry by promoting the creation and utilization of excellent inventions.

In this award, KT&G was recognized for its contribution to protecting national industrial technology and for the development of the intellectual property system through its unique technology development and job invention promotion policy.

Previously, KT&G CEO Baek Bok In, who took office in 2015, emphasized the importance of convergence technology in the tobacco industry and focused on intellectual property-oriented strategies for technology development. Accordingly, KT&G strengthened the support for the policy by establishing a division in charge of intellectual property in 2016 and expanding the Employee Proprietary Information and Inventions Agreement for researchers to encourage patent applications.

In 2018, KT&G built its own computer system to effectively manage all of the company's intellectual property rights.

Thanks to this, KT&G's patent applications, which stood at only 43 in 2016, rose to 238 in 2018 and 431 in 2019. Last year, the number of patent applications increased more than 28 times in four years, recording 1203 such instances.

Chi-Bum Oh, Senior Managing Director at KT&G Corp said, “Last year, our researcher received the Prime Minister’s Commendation at the ‘55th Invention Day’ ceremony, but not stopping there, KT&G's technological capabilities were recognized once again this year... In the future, we will focus on technological innovation and the management of intellectual property rights to enhance corporate value.” 

(Photo1) KT&G was awarded the Prime Minister's Commendation on the 31st in recognition of its contribution to the development of national industry at the 56th Invention Day commemoration ceremony. Photo of Chi-Bum Oh, Senior Managing Director at KT&G Corp (left) taking a commemorative photo at the awards ceremony.

 

(Photo 2) KT&G was awarded the Prime Minister's Commendation on the 31st in recognition of its contribution to the development of national industry at the 56th Invention Day commemoration ceremony. Photo of Chi-Bum Oh, Senior Managing Director at KT&G Corp (middle) taking a commemorative photo at the awards ceremony