A supplier says a technology is “patented” and moves on. The spec sheet has a string of letters and digits next to the claim, and that string is supposed to do the work of proof. Most of the time nobody checks whether it actually does.
It is worth checking, because a filing number and a grant number are not the same category of document, and a practice repeating “patented” on the strength of the wrong one is repeating a claim it cannot back up. Here is what the numbers behind INCUBE, QPT and H2sol actually say, read the way Korea’s patent office records them.
An application number only tells you something was filed
A Korean patent application number takes the form KR 10-YYYY-NNNNNNN: a prefix, a filing year, and a sequence number. It is issued the day a filing is submitted to the Korean Intellectual Property Office, and it stays attached to that filing whether the application is granted, rejected, withdrawn or still pending years later.
That is the first thing to get right. An application number confirms a filing exists and when it was made. It does not confirm the office examined it, and it does not confirm any claim in it was allowed. “Patent-pending” and “patented” describe different positions, and an application number on its own only supports the first one.
A granted number looks different, and means more
A granted Korean patent carries a different, shorter number: KR followed by a run of digits and a B1 suffix, for example KR102768791B1. This number is issued after examination, when the office has allowed the claims and registered the patent. It is the document that supports the word “patented.”
The practical test is simple. If a spec sheet gives you a KR 10-YYYY-NNNNNNN number and calls the technology patented, ask for the grant number, because the application number alone does not get you there.
INCUBE carries two grants, from two different assignees
INCUBE, the component in LHALA Peel built on MOF chemistry, started as Korean application KR 10-2021-0192388. That filing has since produced two granted patents: KR102768791B1, granted 18 February 2025 to LabInCube, and KR102854328B1, granted 3 September 2025 to LabInCube together with Sookmyung Women’s University.
Two grants from one filing lineage, with the assignees named on the record. That is enough to say INCUBE is patented, and enough to say by whom — which is not LHALALA and not H2MEDI, the manufacturer. Neither company is the assignee on either number.
QPT is granted, to an assignee outside the brand entirely
QPT, the marine carbon quantum dot material derived from Ulva linza used in LHALA Doctor, carries its own granted number: KR102225383B1, granted 3 March 2021. The assignee is the National Marine Biodiversity Institute of Korea, a public research institute with no ownership link to LHALALA or H2MEDI.
That is worth stating plainly because it is easy to round off in marketing copy: a brand can describe a technology accurately as patented while having no ownership stake in the patent at all. The grant protects the invention. It does not transfer to whoever licenses or distributes the finished product.
H2sol is an application, not yet a grant
H2sol, also present in LHALA Peel, is currently a Korean application: KR 10-2024-0109462. No grant number has been identified for this filing. Until one is, the accurate description is “pending application,” not “patented.”
This is the case that matters most for a practice reading a claim, because the application number for H2sol follows the same visual pattern as the application number that preceded INCUBE’s two grants. Nothing about the format signals which way an examination will go. Only a published grant number does that, and until that number exists, a “patented” claim attached to H2sol is not supported by the filing.
What supports what. INCUBE: application KR 10-2021-0192388, granted as KR102768791B1 (18 February 2025, LabInCube) and KR102854328B1 (3 September 2025, LabInCube and Sookmyung Women’s University). QPT: granted KR102225383B1 (3 March 2021, National Marine Biodiversity Institute of Korea). H2sol: application KR 10-2024-0109462, pending, no grant identified. None of the three is assigned to LHALALA or to H2MEDI.
Before you repeat “patented,” ask for the number and the assignee
A patent claim without a number is not a claim you can check, and a number without an assignee leaves open who actually owns what you are repeating to a client. Both are one-line questions to a supplier, and both are answerable in minutes against the Korean patent register once you have the number in hand.
The distinction travels beyond this one ingredient. Any technology presented to your practice as patented deserves the same two questions: which number, granted or pending, and assigned to whom. The U.S. team can share the documentation on file for the products you are evaluating before you commit a claim to your own materials.