Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) filed the most patent applications in the nation in the first half of the year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Intellectual Property Office said on Wednesday.
The world’s leading contract chipmaker filed 429 applications, an increase of 24 percent from a year earlier, while China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) filed 408, a 92 percent increase, the office said.
Flat-panel maker AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電) was second among local firms with 318 applications, up 30 percent, while IC designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) and PC maker Acer Inc (宏碁) followed with 163 and 162, down 8 percent and 1 percent respectively, the office’s data showed.
iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and the government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute (工研院) saw declines of 25 percent and 8 percent, to 104 and 81 respectively.
Alibaba remained the largest foreign applicant, followed by US-based semiconductor production equipment supplier Applied Materials Inc with 291 patent applications, up 27 percent year-on-year, while US mobile phone chip giant Qualcomm Inc was third with 267, down 54 percent, the office said.
Japanese precision tools maker Disco Corp was the only other foreign firm in the top 10 to see an annual decline, with its 131 applications down 14 percent from last year, the office said.
In the first half of the year, total applications increased 1 percent to 22,775, with foreign firms making up 62 percent thanks to applications from Japan increasing 5 percent.
Small and medium-sized local enterprises have seen positive growth in the past three years, with a 16 percent increase in applications in the first half of the year, the office said.
The Patent Act (專利法) classifies patents in three categories: invention, design and utility model.
Applications for design patents grew 10 percent to 4,259, with foreign firms’ applications making up 54 percent, the office said.
Foreign applications from Japan, the US and France increased by 7 percent, 17 percent and 400 percent respectively, it said.
However, applications for utility model patents decreased by 5 percent to 8,500, with local firms’ applications accounting for 94 percent, it said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last