Digital Technology Tops Patent Applications in Taiwan.

According to the statistics released by TIPO, digital data processing sector rose as the most popular technical area of invention patent applications in 2009 by filing the highest number, 2,722 cases, of invention patent applications with the TIPO.  The booming technology of touch panel manufacturing reflects the great market demand as a coincidental result of the launch of Apple’s touch smartphone, iPhone.  On the other hand, the semiconductor industry came in 2nd in invention patent applications by filing a total of 1,796 cases in 2009, while there was still an obvious and rapid drop in the number of applications due to technology maturity of this market.  Generally speaking, the number of patent applications filed corresponds to market trend for the future three to four years.  As such, the statistics shows that the products of digital technology and digital content processing will continue to be the hit items in the market.

It is noteworthy that green energy technology will generate enormous business opportunities.  Well-founded on the peak development of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, Taiwan’s solar cell battery and module manufacturing industry have developed rapidly and surpassed the US in the output in 2007 to become the fourth largest solar cell battery producer in the world by a skyrocketing increase of 105% in the number of patent applications accumulated from 2007 to 2009.

While most of LED-related patents are held by the international top five manufacturers, Taiwan-based manufacturers have been vigorously cultivating new LED-related technologies to find a way out of huge amount of royalty payments every year.  That is why the number of LED-related patent applications rose to 740 cases in 2009.

The statistics indicates noticeable concentration of applications in specific five areas, including electronic digital data processing, semiconductor devices, controlled optics, printed circuit, and image communication, which comprise 28.8% of overall patent applications.  Applications should be more diversified to respond to the ever-changing global market trend. 

Top Five Categories of Patent Applications in Taiwan
Year Category	2007		2008		2009
	Number	Percentage (%)	Number	Percentage (%)	Number	Percentage (%)
Electric Digital Data Processing	2,276	9.80	2,691	11.30	2,722	12.00
Semi-conductorDevice	2,538	10.90	2,102	8.80	1,796	7.90
Controlled Optics	766	3.30	942	4.00	740	3.30
Printed Circuit	839	3.60	867	3.60	673	3.00
Image Communication	682	2.90	669	2.80	611	2.70

(2010.09)
/CCS