Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, was the No. 1 Taiwanese firm in invention patent applications in the nation for the first half of the year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Intellectual Property Office said on Thursday last week.
US-based smartphone chip designer Qualcomm Inc took top spot among foreign firms for invention patent applications in Taiwan, the office said.
According to Taiwan’s patent law, patents are categorized into three groups: invention patents, utility model patents and design patents, with invention patents being the most important in terms of the creation of technical ideas.
Data compiled by the office showed that TSMC filed 345 invention patent applications in the past six months, up 5 percent from a year earlier.
Flat-panel maker AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) was second, filing 244 invention patent applications, up 89 percent from a year earlier, ahead of IC designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科, 177, up 7 percent), PC brand Acer Inc (宏碁, 163, up 20 percent) and iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密, 138, down 36 percent).
Hon Hai was the only Taiwanese firm in the top 10 to record a year-on-year decline in patent applications, the office said.
Pegatron Corp (和碩), another iPhone assembler, was the No. 6 Taiwanese invention patent applicant, filing 100 applications in the six-month period, up 156 percent from a year earlier, followed by smartphone brand HTC Corp (宏達電, 96, up 146 percent), the government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute (工研院, 88, up 11 percent), IC designer Realtek Semiconductor Corp (瑞昱半導體, 77, up 45 percent) and telecom services provider Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信, 67, up 72 percent).
Among foreign firms, Qualcomm filed 585 invention patent applications in Taiwan in the first half of the year, up 120 percent from last year, followed by US-based semiconductor production equipment supplier Applied Materials Inc (299, down 3 percent).
Alibaba Group Services Ltd, a subsidiary of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴), took third place, filing 123 patents, down 57 percent from last year, ahead of Japanese semiconductor firm Tokyo Electron Ltd (193, up 12 percent) and Japanese electronics component maker Nitto Denko Corp (156, up 23 percent).
In the first half of the year, the office received 8,408 invention patent applications, up 4 percent from a year earlier, it said.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS