It was reported by the Korean tech site The Elec today that Apple had paid LG Electronics USD571 million in patent fees in Q1 2022 or 90% of the 634 million earned in patent fees/licenses in total.

According to the Invention Promotion Act, if a company files for a patent for an employee’s invention, registers it, implements (uses) it, or disposes of it to a third party, it must compensate the inventor.

LG Electronics has been offering compensation for job inventions to current and former employees. The compensation per person for job inventions offered by LG Electronics at the time to most of these employees, who were standard patent developers, ranged from a few million won to as much as 1 to 2 billion won (USD 712,000 to 1.425 Million)

It is known that Apple accounted for 90% (KRW 800 billion) of the KRW 890 billion in patent licensing fees that LG Electronics received in early 2022, while another company accounted for 10% (KRW 90 billion). Most of the patents are standard telecommunications patents. 

The amount of compensation for inventions paid by LG Electronics for 890 billion won is estimated to be around 40 billion won (USD28.5 Million). According to domestic precedents, the ratio of compensation for inventions for standard patents (inventor contribution) is 5%. For more on this, read the full report from The Elec.