Taiwan recorded 72,238 patent applications in 2020, decreasing 3.23% on year, according to Intellectual Property Office (IPO).
There are three types of: Invention, utility model and design, IPO said.
For invention patents, TSMC led all other Taiwan-based applicants in terms of number of applications, while Qualcomm ranked first among foreign applicants, IPO said.
Japanese applicants applied for 12,110 invention patents in 2020, followed by US-based ones (6,265), Chinese (2,669), South Korean (1,731) and German (931).
Top-10 Taiwan-based applicants for invention patents | |
Applicant | Number of applications |
TSMC | 1,096 |
AUO | 439 |
Realtek | 412 |
ITRI | 337 |
Acer | 334 |
MediaTek | 322 |
Inventec | 236 |
Foxconn | 219 |
CHT | 161 |
Winbond | 151 |
Source: IPO, compiled by Digitimes, July 2020
Top-10 foreign applicants for invention patents | |
Applicant | Number of applications |
Qualcomm | 720 |
Applied Materials | 615 |
Nitto Denko | 461 |
Tokyo Electron | 435 |
Kioxia | 337 |
Disco | 291 |
Sumitomo Chemicals | 266 |
Fujifilm | 259 |
Samsung | 247 |
ASML 239 | |
Source: IPO, compiled by Digitimes, March 2021