105 Economy & Law Office Statistics: Taiwan's Top 100 Patent Ranking of Enterprises and Universities

Is Taiwan’s patent king changing hands? The Intellectual Property Office of the Ministry of Economic Affairs announced the statistics ranking of patent applications and granted certificates for ROC year 105 (2017). Among ROC legal persons, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (hereafter “TSMC”) ranked No. 1 for the first time with 873 applications.

Hon Hai Precision Industry (hereafter “Hon Hai Precision”), which had held the patent king throne for fourteen consecutive years, fell to No. 3 with 400 applications, but still remained first in granted certificates (982). Among foreign legal persons, Intel Corporation (hereafter “Intel”) again topped both applications (905) and granted certificates (854).

In the 105-year top 100 list of ROC legal person patent applications, 65 companies made the list. Since first entering the top ten applicants in 102, TSMC has become increasingly aggressive in its layout. After surpassing the Industrial Technology Research Institute (hereafter “ITRI”) in 104, in 105 it again surpassed the long-time leader Hon Hai Precision (400) with 873 applications, taking first place.

ITRI applied for 468, remaining in 2nd place; Hon Hai Precision, due to a change in layout strategy, saw applications drop by 40%, falling to 3rd place. Among foreign legal persons, US Intel led with 905 applications; US Qualcomm applied for 616, a 1.6-fold increase over the previous year, jumping from 13th in 104 to 2nd in 105, showing quite aggressive positioning in Taiwan; Japan’s Semiconductor Energy Laboratory applied for 470, up 30% year-on-year, ranking 3rd.

Observing invention patent applications by major manufacturers across industries, semiconductors saw mixed results. US Intel (905) slightly decreased 5% from the previous year; our TSMC caught up rapidly, applying for 873, a substantial 74% increase, now close to Intel; South Korea’s Samsung Electronics applied for 252, up 30% year-on-year.

In panels, except for South Korea’s LG Display (98), which grew 88%, South Korea’s Samsung Display (88) decreased 25%, while our AU Optronics (268) and Innolux (56) decreased 5% and 36% respectively.

Mobile devices showed decline, with US Apple (99) and our HTC (81) dropping substantially by 55% and 45% respectively.

In fintech, Hong Kong-based mainland China Alibaba Group Services applied for 111, down 44%, while our Chunghwa Telecom (160) was roughly flat year-on-year.

In robotics, Japan’s Nidec Sankyo applied for 14, down 18% from the previous year, while our HIWIN Technologies applied for 33, down 27% (see Figure 1).

In colleges and universities, 29 entered the top 100 of domestic legal persons. Among them, Far East University remained first among schools with 222 applications, ranking 8th in domestic legal person applications, with most being utility model patents (178).

Next was City University of Science and Technology, Taipei City (172), ranking 9th in domestic legal person applications. In invention patents, National Tsing Hua University again ranked 1st with 111, while among other top universities, National Taiwan University (hereafter “NTU”) (49), National Chiao Tung University (hereafter “NCTU”) (54), and National Cheng Kung University (87) — except for NTU, which increased nearly 30% from the previous year, the rest declined by 10-49%, with NCTU showing the most significant drop (-49%).

In research institutions, ITRI applied for 468, maintaining R&D energy comparable to last year, with applications flat; the Metal Industries Research & Development Centre applied for 154, its best-ever result in both domestic top 100 legal person ranking and application count.

The IPO stated that, judging from the application situation of the top 100 domestic patent applicants, invention patents have declined substantially since 103, with the decline narrowing by 105, while utility model and design patents, after 2-3 consecutive years of decline, both turned to positive growth.

Taking 105 invention patents as an example, enterprises applied for 4,955, down 6.5% year-on-year, a smaller decline than the past 2 years, while colleges and universities applied for 1,054, down 24%, a larger decline, making the total invention count 6,870, still down 9% from the previous year; in utility model patents, due to the narrowing decline of colleges and universities and the increase in enterprise applications, the total utility model count turned to a slight increase of 1% to 2,094; design patents, due to growth in enterprise applications, saw the total design count grow 5%, reaching 557.