Korean companies’ overseas royalty payments climbed to a record $4.31 billion in the first six months of this year, up 14.1 percent from a year ago, as they depended more on foreign intellectual property for their products, the Bank of Korea said Tuesday.

A sharp rise in overseas payments for using intellectual property such as patented technologies and trademarks can negatively affect corporate earnings and share prices if global efforts to protect intellectual property rights strengthen, analysts say.

The country has seen a chronic deficit in the balance of cross-border money flows for using patented inventions, which shows that Korea still does not possess sufficient core technologies and lacks adequate protection of intellectual property rights, they say.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)