RealDesignTech Named Among the World's Top 10 Screen-Sports Patent Applicants
By Shaun Cheon
On March 3, 2024, the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) published an analysis of every screen-sports patent application filed at the world's five largest patent offices (the IP5: Korea, the United States, Japan, Europe and China) between 2002 and 2021. Two rankings of the most active applicants came out of it, and RealDesignTech appears on both: 5th in the world for 2017 to 2021 and 10th over the full 20 years, alongside screen-golf leaders Golfzon, SG Golf and Trackman (KIPO, 2024).
We are also the only company in either top 10 whose technology is built around cycling.
Korea leads the world in screen-sports innovation
Screen sports cover the simulators that let people swing, hit or ride indoors in front of a screen, from screen golf and screen baseball to virtual cycling. KIPO counted 2,938 related patent applications at the IP5 offices over the two decades, growing from 49 in 2002 to 203 in 2021, an average of 7.8% a year (KIPO, 2024).
Korean applicants filed 1,715 of those applications, or 58.4%, the largest share of any country. The United States followed with 500 (17.0%), then Japan with 262 (8.9%), China with 188 (6.4%) and Denmark with 119 (4.1%) (Asia Business Daily, 2024). KIPO also pointed to the size of the opportunity: citing a 2023 market report, it projected the global screen-sports market to grow from about US$3.2 billion in 2022 to about US$8.3 billion by 2029, roughly 13.1% a year, with international screen-golf competition expected to raise the profile of the industry further (KIPO, 2024).
A top-10 applicant, built in five years
Golfzon leads the 20-year ranking with 463 applications (15.8%), followed by SG Golf with 132 and Trackman with 119. RealDesignTech enters at 10th with 30 applications, or 1.0% of everything filed in the field since 2002 (Newsis, 2024).
The more telling number is when those applications were filed. All 30 fall within the latest five years KIPO analysed, from 2017 to 2021. Narrow the window to that period, and RealDesignTech rises to 5th place with 2.8% of the 1,088 applications filed worldwide, just one application behind Real Baseball Zone and ahead of X-Golf, Universal City Studios and Full Swing Golf (KIPO, 2024).
That five-place climb, from 10th to 5th, is the largest of any company that appears on both lists. The five Korean companies in the recent top 10 together account for 29.0% of all filings in the period.
The only cycling company on the list
Look at what the other top applicants build and a pattern stands out. Most make golf simulators and launch monitors. Real Baseball Zone runs screen baseball, Universal City Studios files for theme-park attractions, and one independent inventor patents multi-sport systems. RealDesignTech is the only applicant in either top 10 whose technology is built around the bicycle.
That focus matches where the field is heading. KIPO found that sensing technology, such as motion and ball-tracking sensors, was the fastest-growing area: applications rose from 94 in 2012–2016 to 177 in 2017–2021, an 88.3% increase. Visualization technology grew 48.3% over the same period. KIPO reads this as the industry working to make screen sports feel more like the real thing (KIPO, 2024).
Realism is exactly what Ultiracer is designed for. Instead of a fixed frame where riders only push pedals, Ultiracer lets them lean, steer and balance as they would on the road, and it links those movements to what happens on screen. That is the same idea that earned Ultiracer NEO a CES 2024 Innovation Awards Honoree title in Digital Health earlier this year.
What this means for Ultiracer
KIPO examiner Lee Sang-ho noted that, helped by advances in virtual reality technology, screen sports are moving beyond being a stand-in for outdoor sport and becoming a culture of their own, and that securing patents will matter more as global competition intensifies (Asia Business Daily, 2024).
We agree. Being ranked next to the companies that built screen golf into a global industry shows that the same Korean engineering strength now extends to cycling, and that Ultiracer rests on a protected technology base of its own. We will keep investing in the research behind every ride.
To learn more about Ultiracer or to bring it to your facility, get in touch with us.
References
- Korean Intellectual Property Office. (2024, March 3). 스크린스포츠 특허출원, 한국이 세계 1위 [Korea ranks first in the world for screen-sports patent applications] [Press release]. https://www.kipo.go.kr/ko/kpoBultnDetail.do?menuCd=SCD0200618&ntatcSeq=20038&sysCd=SCD02&aprchId=BUT0000029
- Jeong, I. (2024, March 4). Korea ranks No.1 worldwide in screen sports patent applications share. The Asia Business Daily. https://www.asiae.co.kr/en/article/2024030408300296880 (Korean original: https://view.asiae.co.kr/article/2024030408300296880)
- Kim, Y. (2024, February 29). 한국 20년간 전체 출원의 58.4% 차지, 스크린 시장 선점 [Korea accounts for 58.4% of filings over 20 years]. Newsis. https://mobile.newsis.com/view/NISX20240229_0002644922