Samsung Electronics said Tuesday it would offer local small and medium-sized enterprises some 27,000 patents free of any fees.

The patents had actually been shared since June through the company’s creative economy centers, but only 3,000 of them had been offered for free.

With aims to relieve the burdens of smaller firms, the company said it has decided to offer them up. The patents are mostly on mobile devices, audio and video technologies, network and communication, home appliances and semiconductors.

The patents will be unveiled from Thursday at the company’s creative economy centers in Daegu (ccei.creativekorea.or.kr/daegu) and Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province (ccei.creativekorea.or.kr/gyeongbuk).

“Samsung’s decision will be helpful for elevating the competitiveness of Korean SMEs,” said an official of the Office of the Patent Administration. “The agency also will ramp up efforts for the patents to be more widely and effectively shared.”

Along with Samsung Electronics, other Samsung companies such as Samsung Display, Samsung SDI and Samsung Electro-Mechanics have shared a total of 36,000 patents through the creative economy centers that also serve as start-up accelerators.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)