Violations of intellectual property rights held by South Korea‘s large conglomerates grew in 2011 though the overall number of intellectual property violations dropped from a year earlier, a report showed Wednesday.

The portion of large companies whose intellectual property rights were infringed upon grew from 3.2 percent in 2010 to 5.3 percent last year, according to the report released by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.

The portion for all companies and institutes with intellectual properties, however, dwindled from 6.6 percent in 2010 to 4.3 percent.

The report is based on a survey of 18,656 firms and organizations, including colleges and research institutes, that own intellectual properties, such as patents. It was commissioned by the ministry’s trade commission and Korea Intellectual Property Office, and written by the Korea Institute of Intellectual Property.

According to the report, the portion of large companies whose patents were violated also grew to 2.5 percent in 2011 from 0.7 percent in the previous year.

The report noted the increase may have been caused at least partly by heightened awareness of intellectual properties held by companies.

“Such an increase appears to have been caused by the companies‘ intensified monitoring of violations of their intellectual properties amid an increase in global disputes over patents,” it said.

The portion of large companies that had their trademark rights violated also rose from 1.7 percent in 2010 to 2.4 percent in 2011.

The portion of small and medium-sized companies whose trademark rights had been violated, on the other hand, shrank from 2.2 percent to 0.5 percent over the cited period. (Yonhap News)