Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, filed the most patent applications among all local and foreign applicants in the first quarter of this year, the Intellectual Property Office said on Friday.
Among foreign applicants, US-based smartphone IC designer Qualcomm Inc was the largest patent applicant in Taiwan from January to March, the office said.
Data compiled by the office showed that in the first quarter, TSMC filed 723 invention patents, a quarterly high for the chipmaker since the office began tallying patent applications in 2012.
Photo: I-Hwa Cheng/Bloomberg
TSMC’s first-quarter patent applications for inventions rose by about 7 percent from a year earlier, reflecting the chipmaker’s efforts to upgrade its technologies and maintain its lead over peers.
Taiwanese law has three categories for patents — invention, utility model and design.
Invention patents are considered the most important in the technology sector.
Communication network IC designer Realtek Semiconductor Corp (瑞昱半導體) was second among Taiwanese companies after filing 107 invention applications in the first quarter, down by 4 percent from a year earlier, ahead of flat-panel maker Innolux Corp (群創光電) with 98, memorychip supplier Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) with 98, and flat-panel maker AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) with 88.
Smartphone IC designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) was sixth with 66 invention patent applications in the first quarter, followed by PC brand Acer Inc (宏碁) with 63, contract electronics maker Wistron Corp (緯創) with 58, contract notebook computer maker Inventec Corp (英業達) with 47 and memorychip maker Macronix International Co (旺宏電子) with 46, the data showed.
Qualcomm filed 242 invention patent applications in the first quarter as the top foreign applicant, up 13 percent from a year earlier, the office said.
US semiconductor equipment supplier Applied Materials Inc was second among foreign invention patent applicants with 206 applications, up by 61 percent from a year earlier, followed by Japanese electrical product maker Nitto Denko Corp with 149, Japan-based semiconductor supplier Tokyo Electron Ltd with 142, and Japanese memorychip supplier Kioxia Holdings Corp with 134, the office said.
US-based semiconductor giant Intel Corp filed 71 invention applications in the first quarter. While Intel is in ninth place among foreign applicants, its applications increased year-on-year by 914 percent, the office said.
In the first quarter, 12,534 invention patent applications were filed, up 5 percent from a year earlier, while the number of applications from foreign entities rose by 10 percent to 7,837, the office said, adding that local applications fell to 4,697 from 4,742, the office said.
The number of invention, utility model and design patents filed in Taiwan reached 17,498 in the first quarter, up 2 percent from a year earlier, it said.
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Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
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