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.
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
BYPASSING CHINA TARIFFS: In the first five months of this year, Foxconn sent US$4.4bn of iPhones to the US from India, compared with US$3.7bn in the whole of last year Nearly all the iPhones exported by Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) from India went to the US between March and last month, customs data showed, far above last year’s average of 50 percent and a clear sign of Apple Inc’s efforts to bypass high US tariffs imposed on China. The numbers, being reported by Reuters for the first time, show that Apple has realigned its India exports to almost exclusively serve the US market, when previously the devices were more widely distributed to nations including the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. During March to last month, Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) yesterday announced the launch of the TSMC-UTokyo Lab to promote advanced semiconductor research, education and talent development. The lab is TSMC’s first laboratory collaboration with a university outside Taiwan, the company said in a statement. The lab would leverage “the extensive knowledge, experience, and creativity” of both institutions, the company said. It is located in the Asano Section of UTokyo’s Hongo, Tokyo, campus and would be managed by UTokyo faculty, guided by directors from UTokyo and TSMC, the company said. TSMC began working with UTokyo in 2019, resulting in 21 research projects,
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) yesterday expressed a downbeat view about the prospects of humanoid robots, given high manufacturing costs and a lack of target customers. Despite rising demand and high expectations for humanoid robots, high research-and-development costs and uncertain profitability remain major concerns, Lam told reporters following the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Taoyuan. “Since it seems a bit unworthy to use such high-cost robots to do household chores, I believe robots designed for specific purposes would be more valuable and present a better business opportunity,” Lam said Instead of investing in humanoid robots, Quanta has opted to invest
RSS