Presentation summary

Introduction :
Sham acupuncture is used as a control-treatment for investigating the effects of acupuncture. Analyzing patent trends in sham acupuncture will highlight the current advances in the development of sham acupuncture-related technologies and may facilitate the innovation of novel sham acupuncture techniques. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the trends in the development of sham acupuncture-related technologies based on patents in Korea.

Method :
The electronic database of the Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service (KIPRIS) wassearched for Korean patents for sham acupuncture up to December 2024. Patents, which were not related to sham acupuncture, were excluded. The content of the patents and the technical features of sham acupuncture-related patents were investigated.

Results :
In total, 53 patents were identified through the database search. Finally, this study included sixteenpatents. Application analysis identified non-penetrating sham acupuncture (fourteen, 88%) and electronic sham acupuncture (two, 12%). All patents aimed to use sham acupuncture as a control for rigorous double-blind clinical trials to verify the efficacy of acupuncture treatment. Moreover, this study observed a new development trend toward establishing appropriate control groups with respect to the technical aspects of various acupuncture intervention types, including non-penetrating sham acupuncture and electronic sham acupuncture, for investigating the therapeutic effects of acupuncture.

Conclusion :
The present findings suggest that technological advances were focused on developing varioustypes of sham acupuncture methods for double-blind studies. Moreover, the findings will contribute to thedevelopment of novel sham acupuncture controls and improve future research designs and treatment validation. The development of new sham acupuncture techniques requires consideration of the technological differences and the overall trends may lead to novel innovation.