TIPO releases statistics of patent applications and grants for 2019

E200206Y1 Mar. 2020(E244)
 Taiwan IPO released the statistics of patent applications filed and patent grants in 2019.  Among the overall applications filed for all three kinds of patents, TSMC maintained its top spot on the list of applications filed by local firms with 1,333 applications, while China’s Alibaba Group headed the list of those filed by foreign entities with 850 applications.  As to the ranking of grants of all three kinds of patents, AU Optronics Corp. and Applied Materials, Inc. each claimed the top honor on the list of patent grants to domestic and foreign applicants with 488 grants and 436 grants, respectively.  Besides, the invention patent applications filed for 2019 in Taiwan have increased by around 6%, marking a growth in the number of applications for the 3rd consecutive year.  

 According to the TIPO’s statistics of the applications filed by local firms, TSMC is the domestic applicant that has been filing more and more applications since 2015 and whose applications reached over 1,000 applications in 2019 for the first time.  At the same time, the numbers of applications filed by Acer Inc., Realtek Semiconductor Corp., and Compal Electronics, Inc. have hit their respective record high since 2005 with 565 applications, 333 applications, and 193 applications to snatch the 2nd, 6th, and 9th spot, respectively, while Media Tek Inc. moved down to No. 5 in the ranking with 356 applications filed in 2019.  

 It is noticeable that there are 8 local banks appearing among the top 100 applicants by filing a total of 623 applications, which represents a 76% rise and also the consecutive growth for three years, especially the 120% increase in invention patent applications of 207 cases.  Among the 8 local banks, Bank of Taiwan tops the ranking in the number of applications filed for all three kinds of patents.  

 Moreover, 25 universities were named among the top 100 patent applicants for 2019, among which Far East University held onto the top position by 183 filings mostly for utility model patent (134 applications).  In the meantime, Far East University had also filed a total of 49 invention patent applications to demonstrate its growth by 96%.  With respect to the numbers of invention patent applications filed by these universities, National Tsing Hua University won the crown with 88 filings, surpassing National Chiao Tung University (78 filings) and National Cheng Kung University (70 filings), and National Taiwan University (50 filings).  

 On the other hand, 7 research institutions were recognized among the top 100 patent applicants for the same year; however, these institutions saw an yearly 8% decline in the number of their applications for invention patents.  ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute) stayed firmly at No. 1 position among the 7 named top applicants with 385 applications and also snatched the 4th position in the ranking of the named local corporate applicants.  Metal Industries Research & Development Center trailed ITRI to take the 2nd place by filing 77 applications.

 Among foreign corporate applicants, Alibaba Group had filed a total of 850 applications in 2019 to reach the record high since 2012 and also reclaim the top position in the ranking since 2017.  Chasing behind Alibaba Group, Applied Materials, Inc. moved up to the 2nd spot by 663 filings to see the most drastic rise in number at 52% among the named top 10 foreign corporate applicants.  Toshiba Memory Holdings joined the top 10 ranking by filing 299 applications.  The recognized top 10 foreign corporate applicants all experienced their respective two-digit growth, except for Qualcomm that filed 582 applications to saw its downward filings of 582 applications at an annual 42% decrease.  

  As TSMC has been presenting its sustained progress in the number of patent applications, Applied Materials, Inc., Tokyo Electron Limited (496 filings, No. 4), ASML (250 filings, No. 13), Lam Research Corporation (157 filings, No. 28), KLA Corporation (128 filings, No. 42) have all experienced their respective growth from 9% to 52% in 2019.  (February 2020)
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