Taiwan Ranks Fourth In The Number of US Patent Applications Filed in 2005, Outflanked by South Korea.

TIPO presented the “Analysis of Patents Filed by Taiwan with the European Union, Japan, and the US in 2005”, and the US Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) latest statistics indicated that Taiwan slipped out of the top three spots for the number of patents filed with the USPTO and ranked fourth after South Korea in 2005.

The United States has been the primary country for Taiwanese patent applications overseas.  In 2005, a total of 16,617 (a 10.36% increase from 2004) Taiwanese applications were filed with the USPTO, putting Taiwan in the fourth place for the total applications filed by a foreign country. The number of South Korean’s applications filed with the USPTO has grown from 10,411 in 2003 to 13,646 in 2004, and paced ahead of Taiwan by 17,217 applications filed in 2005, finishing the third for the total applications filed by a foreign country.  On the other hand, Taiwanese applications filed with the Japan Patent Office (JPO) exceeds 3,000 each year and put Taiwan in third place in 2005 for applications filed, after the US (9,177 applications) and South Korea (5,990 applications).  In addition, the number of Taiwanese applications with the European Patent Office (EPO) also increases annually with 679 applications filed in 2005, ranking behind Japan (21,461 applications) and South Korea (3,853 applications) for applications filed by Asian countries.

Even with a 16.84% decrease in the number of patents granted by the USPTO to Taiwanese applications in 2005 compared with 2004, Taiwan remained in the third place in 2005 with 5,993 patents granted, after Japan (31,834 patents granted) and Germany (9,575 patents granted).  Taiwan is in second place with 2,305 patents granted by the JPO in 2005, which represents a 24.33% increase from 2004, only after the United States for the number of patents granted to a foreign country.  Also, a total of 133 patents were granted to Taiwanese applicants by the EPO in 2005, a 17.70% increase from 2004.  (2006.11) 

/CCS