A total of 17,156 patents were applied by Taiwanese and foreign applicants in the first quarter of 2021, increasing 2.85% on year, according to Intellectual Property Office (IPO) under Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Taiwan-based applicants consisted of enterprises, research organizations and universities, and patents are of three types: Invention, utility model and design, IPO said.
For invention patents in particular, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) led Taiwan-based applicants in the number, while Qualcomm ranked first among foreign applicants. Japan-based applicants applied for 3,376 invention patents in total during the quarter, followed by US-based ones with 1,532, China-based ones with 657, South Korea-based ones with 446 and Germany-based ones with 212.
Number of patents in application by type, 1Q21 | ||||
Type of patents | Taiwan-based applicant | Foreign applicant | Total | Y/Y |
Invention | 4,738 | 7,150 | 11,888 | 8.37% |
Utility model | 3,239 | 315 | 3,554 | (6.48%) |
Design | 773 | 941 | 1,714 | (10.26%) |
Source: IPO, compiled by Digitimes, April 2021
Top-10 Taiwan-based applicants for invention patents | |
Applicant | Number of patents in application |
TSMC | 678 |
AU Optronics | 121 |
Realtek Semiconductor | 112 |
Foxconn Electronics | 78 |
Industrial Technology Research Institute | 60 |
Acer | 57 |
Nanya Technology | 57 |
Delta Electronics | 46 |
Inventec | 46 |
MediaTek | 43 |
Source: IPO, compiled by Digitimes, April 2021
Top-10 foreign applicants for invention patents | |
Applicant | Number of patents in application |
Qualcomm | 215 |
Nitto Denko | 186 |
Samsung Electronics | 141 |
Tokyo Electron | 135 |
Applied Materials | 128 |
Kioxia | 127 |
Sumitomo Chemicals | 99 |
Fujifilm | 86 |
Lintech | 58 |
ASML Netherlands | 57 |
Source: IPO, compiled by Digitimes, April 2021
