Business · Companies · 2 hrs ago
South Korean agency’s transferred technologies had a 40% commercialization rate
South Korea’s Rural Development Administration signed 6,084 technology-transfer contracts from 2021 to 2025.
The agency also filed 2,032 patents and registered 1,536 during those years.
But only about 40% of paid transfers became products or services each year.
Many transferred technologies went unused; 329 contracts were listed as unimplemented in 2025.
The figures count product or service launches, but do not show whether they generated revenue or were used in the field.
Lawmaker Yun Joon-byeong said the agency should strengthen support after contracts are signed and check whether technologies are useful in practice.
South Korea’s Rural Development Administration transferred technology under 6,084 contracts from 2021 to 2025, but the annual rate of turning paid transfers into products or services stayed around 40%.
The agency filed 2,032 patent applications and registered 1,536 patents during the five-year period.
The commercialization rate fell from 43.1% in 2021 to 40.6% in 2025, reaching 40.0% in 2024.
Hundreds of transferred technologies each year were not put to use, though those figures declined from 793 in 2021 to 329 in 2025.
A lawmaker said the agency should strengthen support after contracts and verify whether technologies are used in the field.
- Who
- South Korea’s Rural Development Administration and lawmaker Yun Jun-byeong.
- What
- The agency’s transferred technologies had a product or service commercialization rate of about 40%.
- When
- The figures cover 2021 to 2025. The report was published on October 13, 2026.
- Where
- South Korea.
- Why
- The agency transferred technologies under thousands of contracts, but many were not commercialized or put to use.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
The agency recorded a 43.1% commercialization rate and 793 transferred technologies that were not put to use.
The commercialization rate was 43.3%, with 840 transferred technologies not put to use.
The commercialization rate was 41.9%, with 728 transferred technologies not put to use.
The commercialization rate was 40.0%, with 423 transferred technologies not put to use.
The commercialization rate was 40.6%, with 329 transferred technologies not put to use.
Yonhap reported the agency’s figures for technology transfers and commercialization.
- Technology transfer contracts, 2021–2025
- 6,084
- Patent applications, 2021–2025
- 2,032
- Registered patents, 2021–2025
- 1,536
- Commercialization rate, 2025
- 40.6%
- Technologies not put to use, 2025
- 329
1 source
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What people are saying
Patent applications and contract signings themselves should not become the goal
The post-contract support system must be strengthened across the board so that companies generate real revenue from the technologies they receive and this leads to benefits for farmers