Thanks to significant improvements in intellectual property rights (IPR) protection, Taiwan has a strong chance of being removed from the Special 301 Watch List of the Office of the US Trade Representative this year, Tsai Lien-sheng
The IPO under the Ministry of Economic Affairs estimated that Taiwan's piracy rate dropped from 43 percent in 2004 to 36 percent last year, due to the passage of stricter IPR protection regulations, as well as efforts made in cracking down on pirated products in the past year, Tsai said.
A healthier environment for protecting intellectual property also encouraged patent applications, which rose to a new high last year, with Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) topping the list as it had in 2004, according to statistics released by IPO.
Local and foreign companies in Taiwan applied for 79,437 patents on inventions, innovative designs and new technologies last year, an increase of 10.2 percent from 2004, IPO said.
Hon Hai took first place by applying for 1,886 patents, followed by the government-founded Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) with 889 applications and computer maker Inventec Co (英業達) with 651 applications, it said.
Foreign firms were led by Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV, which applied for 882 patents last year.
Samsung Electronics Co placed second with 712 applications and Sony Corp ranked third with 577, IPO said.
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ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to