Asia IP

Statistics from the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) show that patent applications from the local semiconductor industry have increased. “The semiconductor industry has had booming revenues and values in their IP portfolios in recent years,” says CF Tsai, founder of Deep & Far in Taipei.

Compared with 2012, total patent applications at TIPO decreased by 3.4%, with 20,268 applications filed during the second quarter of 2013. Of the 11,730 invention patent applications, 5,307 were made by Taiwanese individuals or companies. Hon Hai Precision Industry led with 849 applications, followed by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, which filed 133 requests, a 79.7% increase year-on-year, according to the report.

Japan is the leader in foreign markets with 2,758 applications, followed by the United States and South Korea with 1,763 and 475 applications, respectively. Apple took the lead with 142 applications and Samsung was in third place with 97 applications. (Samsung was among the top 10 for the first time since the first quarter of 2012.)

The report showed that there were 2,218 design patent applications – a 2.3% increase from 2012 due to the broadened scope of protection in the new Patent Act effective January 1, 2013.

But the increase comes at a price, which is a decrease of utility model filings, says Tsai.

Trademark applications, totalling 18,140, were down 8.1% year-onyear, including a 7.4% dip in domestic applications to 13,781, and a 10.3% decline in foreign applications to 4,359. The drop implicates “a global economic downturn and depression in Taiwan,” says Tsai.