A rush for scientific and technical manufacturers to enter into Mainland China to build up the patent protection net

    The patent war among global hi-tech manufacturers has begun. Mainland China has become a new patent battleground. The information and communication industries in Mainland China have developed rapidly. The output value of information hardware in Mainland China has already exceeded Taiwan. In future five to ten years, Mainland China will be in a key position of PC manufacture.  To avoid recurrence of the nightmare of paying exorbitant royalties as high as 5 billion US dollars, Taiwanese manufacturers have rushed ahead to build up the patent protection net. Up to the present, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. takes the lead in possessing the biggest number of patents, totaled 1,307, in Mainland China. Inventec and Industrial Technology Research Institute rank the 2^nd and the 3^rd.

    The semiconductor industry could not invest in Mainland China under the policy of “guarding against haste but with endurance” in the past, and the fact caused the two local giant chip manufacturers to be less positive in filing patent applications in Mainland China.  United Microelectronics Corps have now been granted 136 patents in Mainland China. The number of patents granted to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. in Mainland China is zero.

To cope with the competitive situation in Mainland China about cross-strait hi-tech manufacturers, the Industrial Development Bureau (“IDB”) launched “Programs of action to upgrade the competitive power of the industry’s patents” to assist Taiwanese manufacturers to build up the patent protection new in Mainland China. The IDB also planned to assist Taiwanese manufacturers to apply for patents in Mainland China via special programs.  Meanwhile, the IDB planned to arrange a visiting mission, consisted of local enterprises, in the latter half of this year to visit the relevant IP organizations in Mainland China.