While Taiwanese firms have obtained an increasing number of patents in the US, more than 60 percent of small firms cannot afford to maintain their patents, a National Applied Research Laboratories (NARL) survey showed yesterday.
From 2005 to 2015, Taiwanese companies have obtained the fifth most patents in the US, behind the US, Japan, South Korea and Germany, NARL Science and Technology Policy Research and Information Center researcher Lee Sen-yin (李森堙) said at a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
The survey is the center’s first effort to initiate a long-term observation of the nation’s patent applications and maintenance, he said.
The number of patents obtained by Taiwanese companies in the US grew from 30,592 between 2005 and 2009 to 53,521 between 2011 and 2015, the survey said.
An estimated 20,935 large enterprises with more than 500 employees and 13,966 small enterprises with less than 500 employees have obtained US patents, data showed.
However, expensive fees for patent maintenance — a basic fee plus three maintenance fees — influence a company’s decision to protect their patents, Lee said.
According to the US Patent and Trademark Office, once a 20-year patent is issued, the patentee should pay maintenance fees at the 3.5, 7.5 and 11.5 year anniversaries, and there is a surcharge for late payments.
While 70.2 percent of big entities have maintained their patents, only 36.1 percent of smaller entities have, Lee said.
Companies are more willing to pay for what they deem as more valuable patents, with semiconductor, photonics, measurement, audiovisual and communication techniques the top five domains of maintained patents between 2003 and 2015, he said.
Lee said that the semiconductor and photonics sectors’ strength are advantageous for the nation to develop “smart” machines and artificial intelligence, but said the government needs to devote more resources to smaller enterprises.
There are more small and medium-sized companies in Taiwan, and the government should utilize their patents to strive for the nation’s industrial transformation, he added.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods