ITRI Profits By Patent Licensing and Removes Reward Cap To Stimulate Employees’ Invention.

　Holding most invention patents in Taiwan, ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute) has been licensing patent portfolio with respect to semi-conductor and digital TVs to TSMC and MediaTek Inc. after integrating technology transfer center and technology service center into “Technology Transfer and Service Center” (TTSC) in 2004.  In the past three years, ITRI’s revenues tripled and it was estimated that its revenue soared up to NT$1.5 billion for 2006.

  In addition to the revenues of application of self-developed patents, ITRI maximizes patent values by patent portfolio and licensing.  For the optimal commercial exploitation of patents, ITRI has been combining patents resulted from foreign research institutes and from S&T projects. 

  Also, in order to stimulate patent R&D by the employees, ITRI abolished the reward cap at NT$4 million, because of which the inventor would gain 25% of the net profit from the exploitation of his/her patent every year.  In the event of the inventor’s employment termination, the 25% profit still goes to the inventor for the first 5 years, and then begins to decrease annually from the 6th year until it reaches zero in the 10th year.  In such project, more than 500 ITRI employees received more than million dollars reward each for their inventions in 2005, and the highest reward even amounted to NT$5 million.  ITRI’s accomplishment is more than the optimization of patent values and invention incentive; it has also taken efforts to cultivate professionals.  For 33 years after its establishment, more than 18 thousand professionals stand out in the industries as a result of ITRI’s training and cultivation, and there are more than 60 CEOs of listed companies in the industry coming from ITRI.

  Compared with the patent application rate of 10% to 20% in MIT, California State University, Columbia University, Air Products, etc., the application rate of ITRI’s patents in 2004 was 22.2%, which has outflanked the average rate of the above well-known organizations in the US.  Moreover, in the three years from 2002 to 2004, ITRI’s R&D results transferred to the industry had facilitated 1034 investment cases, valuing NT$51 billion. (2006.10)

/CCS