Advancement of science technology, combined with other technologies including smart clothing, enables value added product developments and market creation. Accordingly, it became necessary to identify technology trends promptly and to prepare future technology road map. For this purpose, many bibliometric analysis using thesis and patents have been made. However, few such attempts are made in clothing study. Thus, the study examined the latest technology trends and future technology development directions of smart clothing from empirical bibliometric analysis based on smart clothing patent documents. In addition, comparative analysis was made about the market leadership and technology development capability of core sectors by countries utilizing market reach index expressed as patent families and technology development index. The study revealed that overall smart clothing technology development trends has been continuously increasing since 2000. Also the results confirmed that it is in the development stage from the fact that each year the number of patents and patent applicants in portfolio analysis also has been increasing. In addition, comparative results of patent market share and market reach index, with the highest in electronics/ICT technology sectors, indicated that this is the technology sector with competitive acquisition of comparatively advanced technology and market expansion. The analysis methodology of economic value of technology including the presented market reach index in this report is expected to be utilized in the process to identify the current positioning of core technology and future development direction.
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