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Good practice Imported

KAIST Institute of Technology Value Creation (ITVC) — University Technology Licensing

South Korea · Daejeon · See the South Korea profile · See the Daejeon profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 76% 57/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

KAIST became the first Korean university to earn over 10 billion KRW in a single year of technology-licensing royalties (10.18bn KRW, 56 contracts, 2019), and holds patents in the international HEVC video-standard pool earning royalties from Amazon, Apple and Google.

December 2021
KAIST Holdings founded
10.183 billion KRW
Technology-licensing royalties in 2019 (2019)
56 contracts
Licensing contracts in 2019 (2019)
8.8 billion KRW
Seoul National University licensing royalties in 2019 (2019)
87 contracts
Seoul National University licensing contracts in 2019 (2019)
5.4 billion KRW
Korea University licensing royalties in 2019 (2019)
133 contracts
Korea University licensing contracts in 2019 (2019)
~5.4 billion KRW
HEVC/H.265 patent-pool royalties (2024)
37.9%
Korean university sector technology-transfer rate
2020
Year of Korea IP Office recognition
KAIST Institute of Technology Value Creation (ITVC) — University Technology Licensing

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
Period
2000s–present
Keywords
University technology licensing, patent commercialisation, standards patents

Context

KAIST's technology-transfer and licensing office — evolved into today's Institute of Technology Value Creation (ITVC) — manages patent commercialisation for one of Asia's leading science and engineering universities, in Daejeon, South Korea. KAIST Holdings, a separate equity vehicle, was created in December 2021 to invest directly in university spin-offs.

Results

In 2019, KAIST became the first Korean university to cross 10 billion KRW in a single year of technology-licensing royalties (10.183 billion KRW from 56 contracts) — ahead of Seoul National University (8.8bn KRW, 87 contracts) and Korea University (5.4bn KRW, 133 contracts). KAIST also holds patents (professors Kim Moon-cheol and Park Hyun-wook) in the international HEVC/H.265 video-compression standard-patent pool — the first Korean-university patents ever in such a pool — earning ~5.4 billion KRW in 2024 alone from licensees including Amazon, Apple and Google. In 2020, Korea's IP Office named KAIST one of the first 'Institutions of Outstanding Patent Quality Management.'

Conclusions

These figures are strong by Korean standards, but the country's university sector overall transfers only ~37.9% of patented technology into industry use — lower than government research institutes achieve. KAIST Holdings discloses very little public data (its website lists only two subsidiaries, no financial statistics), so its track record cannot yet be independently verified.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
KAIST's Institute of Technology Value Creation (ITVC) manages patent commercialisation and licensing negotiations., KAIST Holdings, a separate equity vehicle created in December 2021, invests directly in university spin-offs.

Conditions for success

  • Strong, growing patent portfolio and licensing pipeline (record 10.183 billion KRW in 2019).
  • Participation in international standard-essential patent pools (HEVC/H.265) generating ongoing royalty income.
  • External recognition for patent quality management from Korea's IP Office (2020).

Common failure modes

  • KAIST Holdings discloses very little public data (only two subsidiaries listed, no financial statistics), limiting independent verification of its track record.
  • National technology-transfer rate for Korean universities (~37.9%) lags government research institutes, suggesting sector-wide limits that even a leading university faces.

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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