Taiwan Is Ranked No. 2 for Patent Output in 2008.

The Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) states that Taiwan had been placed first in terms of patent output from 2003 to 2007 but dropped one place to No. 2 in 2008 as indicated in 2008 IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook.  According to An East Asian Renaissance: Ideas for Economic Growth completed by the World Bank, Taiwanese patents are cited by East Asian economies much more frequently than US and Japanese patents, which shows that Taiwan is influential in East Asia’s intra-regional knowledge flow.

Patent output is calculated by dividing the number of patents granted by the number of commercial R&D personnel in non-governmental divisions, according to which, Taiwan had remained in the 1st place in patent output for five consecutive years since 2003.  To strengthen and inspire future development, Taiwan government has put a greater emphasis on research and development (R&D) and innovation by raising the nation's total expenditure on R&D from the present 2.6% to 3% of GDP.

Statistics released by the CEPD presents that:

1. Rise in number of issued patents and intra-regional citation among East Asian countries:

1.1 USPTO database says that East Asian economies had generated 0.72 patent per 100,000 population from 2000 to 2004, which is a five-time increase from 0.14 patent in 1990 to 1994.  It is also more than the 0.08 and 0.12 patent per 100,000 people respectively generated in Latin America and emerging Europe.  It is worth mentioning that Taiwanese and South Korean patents comprise most of the patent count accumulated in total issued patents in East Asian region. 

1.2 Patenting in East Asian economies mostly concentrate in electronics and communications technologies.

1.3 Judging from patent citation frequency, the US and Japan are still by far the largest sources of citations for East Asian innovators.  The citations made by East Asian economies to patents of other countries in the same region is rising rapidly, from an average 1.7% of all citations in 1992-94 to 5.9% in 2002-04.  The increased percentage presents that the intra-regional flows of innovation and knowledge within East Asia has been rising with relative importance. 

2. Taiwanese patents are cited by other East Asian economies more frequently than ever:

According to the World Bank’s citation frequency indicator, East Asian economies cite Taiwanese patents much more intensively than ever in recent years:

2.1. South Korea shows a citation frequency of 0.69 to Taiwanese patents, which is almost as high as the 0.7 frequency of corresponding citation to Japanese patents, and is 1.5 time as intensive as that to the US patents;
2.2. Singapore shows an exceptionally high citation frequency to patents in Taiwan at 1.63, which significantly exceeds that to patents in Japan (at 0.6), the US (at 0.45), and South Korea (at 0.93);
2.3. Citation frequencies to Taiwanese patents in China and Malaysia stand at 0.41 and 0.57, respectively, also exceeding those to Japanese and the US patents.  The frequency of Hong Kong patent citing Taiwanese patent is 0.4, as high as that (0.41) citing Japanese patents.  (2008.8)
/CCS