South Korea's economy posted the second-lowest deficit in the intellectual property right balance last year, keeping an improvement in the intangible property trade, central bank data showed on Feb. 20. The intellectual property right balance logged a deficit of 1.99 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, the lowest except a deficit of 1.66 billion dollars tallied in the previous year, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The intangible property balance continued to improve from a deficit of 4 billion dollars in 2015. The deficit in industrial property rights, including patent and trademark, amounted to 2.31 billion dollars last year, but the copyright balance recorded a surplus of 450 million dollars.

Source: Xinhua