R&D Investment

The business environment is highly uncertain and competition in the marketplace continues to intensify. For these reasons, R&D activities continue to grow in importance as the way to be prepared for the future. SAMSUNG Electronics continues to increase R&D spending and is committed to leading technology standardisation and securing intellectual property rights.

We registered 17,377 patents worldwide in 2006 alone, and our 2,400-plus patents in the US were the second most of any company. The patents are not solely related to current business lines. We are taking aim at fusion technology and have begun research in biotechnology and other future-oriented fields. Applications for biotech patents totaled 208 between 2004 and 2006, higher than any other Korean company. Many of these patents are related to biochips and other fusions of information technology and biotechnology.

Firms specialising in patents have recently emerged, patent sharing among companies is now widespread, and patent disputes are becoming more complex, requiring comprehensive and constant countermeasures. To answer this trend, we have newly created the Chief Patent Officer position and augmented our team of patent specialists.

(as of December 2006)

	R&D Budget (% of sales)	US Patents
2006	KRW5.58 trillion (9.5%)	2,665 (2nd place)
2005	KRW5.41 trillion (9.4%)	1,641 (5th place)