Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remained the top invention patent applicant in Taiwan in the first quarter of this year, outpacing all local and foreign applicants, the Intellectual Property Office said on Thursday.
TSMC filed 752 invention patents, up 4 percent from a year earlier, marking the fourth consecutive year the chipmaker claimed the first place in the first quarter.
Patents are categorized into three groups in Taiwan: invention, design and utility model. Invention patents are considered the most important in terms of new technology ideas.
Photo: Reuters
Smartphone IC designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) took second place among local applicants with 146 invention patent applications, up 121 percent from a year earlier, the highest rate of growth among local firms.
DRAM chip supplier Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) was third with 115 invention patent applications, up 17 percent from a year earlier, followed by flat-panel makers Innolux Corp (群創) and AUO Corp (友達), which filed 101 and 94 applications, up 3 percent and 7 percent respectively.
The office said it was the first time Innolux has filed more than 100 invention patent applications in a single quarter.
Rounding out the top 10 local applicants were communication network IC designer Realtek Semiconductor Corp (瑞昱半導體), with 77 applications, down 28 percent; contract notebook computer maker Inventec Corp (英業達) with 55 applications, up 17 percent; Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) with 45 applications, up 50 percent, memorychip supplier Macronix International Co (旺宏電子) with 42 applications, down 9 percent; and the government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute with 42 applications, up 5 percent.
Among foreign applicants, Applied Materials Inc reclaimed the top spot after nine years by filing 182 invention patent applications, down 12 percent from a year earlier. It was followed by Japanese electrical product maker Nitto Denko Corp with 176 applications, up 18 percent; US-based smartphone IC designer Qualcomm Inc with 169 applications, down 30 percent; South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co with 166 applications, up 44 percent; and Japanese semiconductor supplier Tokyo Electron Ltd with 128 applications, down 10 percent.
In the first quarter, 12,486 invention patent applications were filed, little changed from a year earlier, the office said.
The number of invention, utility model and design patent applications totaled 17,226 in the first quarter, down 2 percent from a year earlier, it added.
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Huawei Technologies Co’s (華為) latest smartphones carry a version of the advanced made-in-China processor it revealed last year, results from an independent analysis showed. This underscored the Chinese company’s ability to sustain production of the controversial chip. The Pura 70 series unveiled last week sports the Kirin 9010 processor, research firm TechInsights found during a teardown of the device. This is a newer version of the Kirin 9000s, made by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) for the Mate 60 Pro, which had alarmed officials in Washington who thought a 7-nanometer chip was beyond China’s capabilities. Huawei has enjoyed a resurgence since
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li