USPTO：Total Number of US Patents Issued to Taiwanese Nationals in 2005 Ranks No. 4.

According to the annual report US PTO issued on 22 November, the US patent applications Taiwanese nationals filed in the 2005 fiscal year (1 October 2004 through 30 September 2005) amount to 16,865 representing a 28.46% increase over 13,129 in 2004 and the patents issued to Taiwanese nationals amount to 6,311 representing a decrease of 14.44% over 7,376 in 2004.  The US patent applications filed by and US patents issued to Taiwanese nationals continue to rank No. 4 in number, preceded by the numbers of those filed by and issued to US nationals, Japanese nationals and German nationals respectively.

  US PTO received a total of 409,532 patent applications in the 2005 fiscal year, including 225,152 from US nationals and 184,380 from non-US nationals.  Of all US patent applications filed by non-US nationals, the total number of those filed by Taiwanese applicants (16,865) is second to that of those filed by Japanese applicants (65,025) and that of those filed by German applicants.  US PTO issued a total of 165,485 patents in the 2005 fiscal year, including 85,238 to US patentees and 80,247 to non-US patentees.  Among those issued to non-US patentees, the total number of patents issued to Taiwanese patentees (6,311) is preceded by that of those issued to Japanese patentees (34,079) and that of those issued to German patentees (10,502).

  The number of US patent applications filed by and that of US patents issued to Taiwanese nationals have each ranked No. 4 for some years, No. 1 through No. 3 being USA, Japan, and Germany.  However, it is possible that such ranking may be taken over.  US patent applications filed by Korean nationals amount to 15,200 in 2005 representing an increase of 56.22% over 9,730 in 2004 and substantially shortening the gap between Taiwan and Korea.  (2006.01)