Companies based in the U.S. and South Korea have filed for more than 75% of patent applications related to the metaverse, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) since 2016, according to Nikkei Asia.

U.S.-based companies that were among the world’s top 20 metaverse patent applicants were responsible for 57% of the 7,760 applications filed since 2016, according to a joint survey by Nikkei Asia and research firm Cyber Creative Institute. South Korean firms in the top 20 list came second with 19%, Chinese firms came third with 12%, followed by Japanese firms at 8%.

The survey assessed roughly 20 patent categories in Japan, the U.S., Europe and other markets related to the metaverse, VR and AR.South Korean multinational LG Electronics applied for the most metaverse patents since 2016, followed by its local rival, Samsung Electronics.

Both Samsung and LG incorporated non-fungible token (NFT) trading functions into their line of smart TVs earlier this year.U.S. -based tech titans, Meta, Microsoft, Intel and Apple, also made the top 20 metaverse patent applicants list, along with China’s Huawei and Japan’s Sony.