Europe Surpasses Taiwan in Biotech Patent Applications.

　The statistics figures released by the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) shows that Taiwan matches the advanced countries in terms of the number of patent applications for semiconductor and photoelectric patents according to a comparison between the 2006 top ten fields of invention patent applications in Taiwan and those released in the European Patent Office’s (EPO) Annual Report 2006.  However, there is a notable decrease in the number of applications for patents originating from Taiwan biotech industry that has received sufficient support and assistance from the Taiwan government.

　According to relevant statistics, the semiconductor patents rank 1st in the list of top ten fields of invention patent applications filed in 2006 in Taiwan with a total of 3,500 applications filed, which represents only a slight difference in ranking position if compared with 2005.  EPO’s Annual Report 2006 reveals that medical/veterinarian patents top the patent applications filed in Europe.  

　A comparison between the EPO’s and TIPO’s statistics demonstrates that there is a jump in the number of applications for biotech patents in European countries, and medical and veterinarian patents comprise most of them with 16,000 applications, rising by 7.5%, said the officials of TIPO.  By contrast, in Taiwan, the number of biotech patents finished 15th in the application number in 2005 but went down to the 22nd in 2006 with a decreased proportion of 1.3% of the total applications, representing a fall over 20%. 

　In addition, the application number of patents with respect to “biochemistry/genetic engineering” amounted to 3847 cases and ranked 8th though there is also a slight fall by 4.8% in this area in 2006.  On the contrary, the application number with respect to “biochemistry/genetic engineering” in Taiwan finished 23rd in 2006 with a drop of 23% compared with 2005. 

　The foregoing comparison shows that Taiwan has been kept in line with the international capability in semiconductor and photoelectric patent application filings but lost its strength in biotech and medical development which is regarded as a targeted industry by the Taiwan government.  The heavy slump in the application number of biotech and medical patents in Taiwan pinpoints a gap between Taiwan biotech industry’s technology capability and that of the patent-oriented market of advanced countries and also the insufficient performance of Taiwan government’s industry development policies.

A Comparison:  Top Ten Fields of Patent Applications Filed in Taiwan and Europe

Ranking	Taiwan	Europe
1	Semiconductor device	Medical, Veterinarian, Hygiene
2	Optics, measurement	Electro-Communications
3	Electronics Circuit, communication	Calculation
4	Semiconductor application	Electric components
5	Electronic digital data processing	Organic chemistry
6	Electric components	Measurement, testing
7	Electric power	Vehicles
8	Shaping	Biochemistry/genetic engineering
9	Transportation	Organic macromolecular compounds
10	Controlling and signaling device	Engineering components

 (2007.07)

/CCS