□ The ‘well-being’ boom has brought the idea that humans are most beautiful at
their natural state. Because of this trend, the development of oriental medicine
cosmetics which is environmental friendly and safe for the skin has been active
in Korea lately. The applications for patents regarding these natural cosmetics
are also on the increase.
□ Oriental medicine cosmetics have its
foundation on traditional oriental medicine and uses the oriental medicine
beauty method. These types of cosmetics use natural oriental pharmaceuticals as
their ingredients. It is claimed that it has great medicinal functions and also
has the advantage of inducing less side effects.
□ After the cosmetic
market was opened to foreign markets in 1996, cosmetics from other countries
began to flow into Korea. As the stagnancy of the Korean economy continued, the
Korean cosmetic market seemed to be on the verge of falling apart. However,
recently consumers have begun to recognize the perceived superiority of oriental
medicine. As Korean consumers are beginning to prefer the creativity and
originality of the cosmetics that do not copy foreign cosmetics, Korean cosmetic
companies are on a big come-back with oriental medicine cosmetics as their
primary weapon.
□ The whole market size of Korean cosmetics is
approximately 5 trillion 496 billion won (about 5 billion 440 million dollars).
There has not been much flux in the market during the recent two to three years.
However, when we look over the market size of the oriental medicine cosmetics,
the figure has jumped from 370 billion won (about 366 million dollars) in 2003
to 500 billion won (about 495 million dollars) in 2004. This is a 30 percent
increase and it is estimated that this figure will again jump to about 800
billion won (about 795 million dollars) in the year 2005. Source: Korean
Oriental Medicine Newspaper
□ When we look over the status of
applications for Korean patents,
- From 1991 to 2004, there were a total of
558 applications. Till the mid 1990’s, there were a total of 25 applications
related to oriental medicine cosmetics and this accounted for only 4.5 % of the
applications for patents regarding cosmetics. However, there has been an
increase after the mid 1990’s and since 2000, there have been a total of 469
applications and this accounts for 84.1% of the total.
- Looking over
the nationality of the patent applicants, Koreans account for 516 applications.
This is 92.5% of the total applications and shows that Koreans apply much more
than foreigners. Of the Korean applicants, Coreana had the most number of
applications with 98 applications. Following Coreana was Pacific with 92, LG
Chemicals with 60, Nadri with 27, and Hanbul with 21. Personal applications also
accounted for 87 of the applications.
- Of the materials used, licorice
extracts was used in the most number of applications. It was used in 56.
Following was ginseng extracts used in 48 of the applications, mory cortex
radici extracts used in 46, green tea extracts used in 43, soybean extracts used
in 38, and angelica gigas extracts used in 36. The simplest way is to just add
the oriental medicine that is known to have good effects to the cosmetic. Now,
high-tech is being used to extract the main ingredients from the medicines and
to include that in the cosmetics.
- Of the functions, cosmetics used to
prevent the aging of the skin accounted for 39.1 % of the total applications
with 226 applications. Then whitening cosmetics accounted for 186, anti-allergy
for 46, skin trouble prevention for 40, skin refresher for 33, UV prevention for
15, and other cosmetics having various effects on the skin accounted for 32
applications.
□ By developing oriental medicine cosmetics fit for
Koreans and their skin, the Korean cosmetic companies were able to deal a blow
to foreign cosmetic companies. It is believed that the development of cosmetics
centered on natural materials will be the main key to the competitive power of
the Korean market. Therefore, policies should be made that encourages and
continually supports the research and development of such cosmetics.
(Source: KIPO press material 2005-05-30)
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