Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, last year retained its position as the No. 1 patent applicant in the nation, the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Intellectual Property Office said.
TSMC filed 937 patent applications, the highest annual total for the company, data compiled by the office showed.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the world’s largest contract electronics maker and a major assembler of Apple Inc’s iPhones, was the No. 2 domestic firm with 485 applications, the office said.
The government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute (工研院) was the third-largest applicant with 451, ahead of PC vendor Acer Corp (宏碁) with 380 and flat panel maker AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) with 357, it added.
Integrated circuit designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) came in sixth after filing 349 applications, followed by bubble jet printer equipment provider MicroJet Technology Co (研能科技) with 251.
Far East University, the only university in the top 10, filed 205, followed by China Steel Corp (中鋼) with 203 and Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) with 172, it said.
Meanwhile, Alibaba Group Services Ltd, a subsidiary of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴), was the top foreign patent applicant, the data showed.
Alibaba last year filed 762 patent applications, more than US-based smartphone chip designer Qualcomm Inc’s 604, semiconductor production equipment supplier Applied Materials Inc’s 493, US IC giant Intel Corp’s 429 and Japan-based Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co’s 352, the office said.
The office said it received 73,791 patent applications last year, up 2 percent from the previous year, reversing a three-year drop in applications.
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
Micron Technology Inc is a driving force pushing the US Congress to pass legislation that would put new export restrictions on equipment its Chinese competitors use to make their chips, according to people familiar with the matter. A US House of Representatives panel yesterday was to vote on the “MATCH Act,” a bill designed to close gaps in restrictions on chipmaking equipment. It would also pressure foreign companies that sell equipment to Chinese chipmaking facilities to align with export curbs on US companies like Lam Research Corp and Applied Materials Inc. The bill targets facilities operated by China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings’ planned acquisition of Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations has yet to enter the formal review stage, as regulators await supplementary documents, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said yesterday. Acting FTC Chairman Chen Chih-min (陳志民) told the legislature’s Economics Committee that although Grab submitted its application on March 27, the case has not been officially accepted because required materials remain incomplete. Once the filing is finalized, the FTC would launch a formal probe into the deal, focusing on issues such as cross-shareholding and potential restrictions on market competition, Chen told lawmakers. Grab last month announced that it would acquire
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