IPR Trends Q4 2015: Patent and Trademark Statistics - 2016.02.16

A.Patent Applications
1.The number of new applications for all three types of patents came down by 2.25% to 20,171 cases.
2.Applications for invention (12,390) and utility model (5,682) patents decreased by 0.6% and 6.76%, respectively. Design (2,099) applications, conversely, grew by 1.11% (Table 1).
3.The number of invention applications (5,198) filed by residents dropped by 5.18%, whereas those filed by non-residents (7,192) went up by 2.99% (Table 1).
4.Breakdown by country, Japan (3,081) topped the list, followed by the US (2,046), South Korea (449), China (402), and Germany (342) (Fig.1).
5.The top five domestic corporations applying for invention patents were Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) (333), Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) (291), Inventec (181), Metal Industries Research & Development Center (MIRDC) (118), Acer (89). Hon Hai (83) and AU Optronics (74), however, dropped a few notches to the 6th and 8th place, respectively (Fig.2).
6.As for foreign corporations, Intel (393) topped the list, followed by Semiconductor Energy Laboratory (104), Tokyo Electron (98), Nitto Denko (91), and Applied Materials (90) (Fig.2)...read more

Amended Patent Attorney Act now effective - 2016.01.29

Since its promulgation in 2007, the Patent Attorney Act has only been amended once, which took place in 2009. There are, however, provisions on key practices that require further amendment. To this purpose, TIPO began the amendment process. The Act was later promulgated on July 1, 2015, and then became effective on January 1, 2016. Key revisions include:
1. Simplifying administrative procedures
The provision that requires registration for patent attorney practices is deleted. A patent attorney now has to complete pre-employment training to apply for certificate.

2. Employment by a registered corporation
In addition to setting up a law firm and working for a patent firm, a patent attorney can now be employed by a registered corporation...read more

Encourage Universities to Apply for Patents to Protect their R&D Results and Promote Dissemination - 2016.01.20

The number of patent applications filed by local colleges and universities dropped 11.3% to 4,275 in 2014 from the peak of 4,817 in 2013. In addition, their applications filed in the three quarters of 2015 also decreased by 10% compared to the same period of 2014. The applications from national universities were mostly for invention patents while those from private universities were mostly for utility model patents. Overall, these universities outperformed in applications for the areas of medical and healthcare as well as pharmaceutical and biotech.

In the past few years, over 50% of the patent applications filed by the top 10 national universities were for invention patents. In particular, the invention patent applications accounted for over 95.5% of the total patent applications filed by the National Tsing Hua University for a long time...read more

IPR Trends Q2 2015: Patent and Trademark Statistics - 2015.08.03

The number of overall new patent applications filed in Q2 2015 came down by 2.37% to 18,176 cases. Of these, invention patents were slightly up by 0.88% whereas utility model and design patents saw decrease. In trademark, the number of applications exceeded that in Q2 2014.
The number of invention applications totaled 10,554. Of these, foreign applications were up by 8.30% to 6,527 whereas domestic applications (4,027) were decreased by 9.20%. In June, domestic applications (1,402) unexpectedly grew by 4.32% (Table 1, Fig.1).
Breakdown by nationality, Japan (2,721) continued to top the chart, followed by the US (1,853), South Korea (399), Germany (304) and mainland China (298). Of these, South Korea fell by 20.99% whereas Japan, the US and mainland China saw growth of 2%~11% (Fig.2).
Among top ten invention filing domestic corporations, Hon Hai (150) continued to take the lead, outnumbering Acer (95). In terms of technical fields, Hon Hai focused on the Internet of Things (IoT) and robots territories and Acer targeted hardware demand of the IoT. Hong Fu Jin Precision Industry (Wuhan), one of Foxconn’s subsidiaries that features computer accessories, squeezed in the 10th spot (Fig.3)...read more