2016 Taiwan IPO statistics of top 100 patent applicants

　Taiwan IPO published the list of top 100 patent applicants for 2016.  Among the domestic corporate applicants, TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited) has been implemented more active and constructive patent mapping since it broke into the list of top 10 patent applicants in 2013, and thus surpassed Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. to top the ranking with 873 patent applications, followed by ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute) that contributed 468 applications in 2016.  Always sticking to the No. 1 position, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., however, fell to No. 3 by filing a total of 400 patent applications.  As for foreign corporate applicants, Intel led in the list to file most patent applications (905 applications) in 2016.  US-based Qualcomm had filed 616 patent applications in Taiwan in 2016 to jump from No. 13 in 2015 to No. 2 in 2016, followed by Japan-based Semiconductor Energy Laboratory at No. 3 with 470 applications. 
　
　Observations on the overall invention applications filed by major corporate applicants of all industries are provided below. 
　
1.  In semiconductor industry, TSMC used utmost efforts to rise and catch up with Intel by filing a total of 873 applications, close to Intel’s 905 applications, which represents a prominent increase by 74% for TSMC.  Such progress also occurred to Samsung by 30% with 252 applications. 

2.  In the panel industry, LG Display saw its growth of 88% with 98 applications, while Samsung contributed its 88 applications.  AUO (AU Optronics Corp.) accounted for 268 applications, and Innolux Corporation, 56 applications. 

3.  Recession took place in the mobile device industry.  Apple Inc. filed only 99 applications, and HTC filed 81 applications. 

4.  The industry of financial technology had performance nearly the same with that of 2015 with Alibaba Group filing 111 application and Chunghwa Telecom, 160 applications. 

5.  In the robot industry, 14 applications were contributed by Nidec Sankyo Corporation and 33 applications, by HIWIN Technologies Corp.  (February 2017) 
/CCS