Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) applied for the most patents of any company in Taiwan for the ninth consecutive year last year, data released on Saturday by the Intellectual Property Office showed.
The office said in a statement that TSMC filed 1,412 invention patent applications last year, down 28 percent from a year earlier, but still the most among all the patent applicants in Taiwan.
The office said the drop in TSMC’s filings largely reflected the contract chipmaker’s patent development strategies.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Under Taiwanese law, patents are categorized into three groups — invention, utility model and design — with invention patents considered the most important for new technologies.
DRAM chip supplier Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) filed the second-most patents at 466 invention patents, up 25 percent from a year earlier.
Rounding out the top 10 Taiwanese invention patent applicants were flat-panel maker AUO Corp (友達) with 425 applications, down 5 percent; the Industrial Technology Research Institute (工研院) with 356, up 15 percent; flat screen producer Innolux Corp (群創) with 328, up 1 percent; artificial intelligence server maker Inventec Corp (英業達) with 321, up 6 percent; communication network IC designer Realtek Semiconductor Corp (瑞昱) with 309, up 14 percent; PC brand Acer Inc (宏碁) with 277, down 5 percent; iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海) with 259, up 93 percent; and smartphone IC designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) with 239, down 56 percent.
Hon Hai had the highest increase in invention patent applications in Taiwan last year, the Intellectual Property Office said.
Among foreign companies in Taiwan, American semiconductor equipment supplier Applied Materials Inc had the most invention patent applications last year after filing 950 applications, up 29 percent from a year earlier.
That helped Applied Materials replace South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, which filed 894 invention patents, down 8 percent from a year earlier, to become the top foreign applicant, the office said.
South Korean e-commerce operator Coupang Corp was third after filing 698 invention patents, up 54 percent from a year earlier ahead of Japanese semiconductor and display production equipment supplier Tokyo Electron Ltd, with 661, up 21 percent, and American smartphone IC designer Qualcomm Inc, with 660, up 3 percent, the data showed.
Rounding out the top 10 foreign applicants were Japanese electrical product maker Nitto Denko Corp, with 417, down 13 percent; Dutch semiconductor equipment supplier ASML Holding NV, with 344, up 11 percent; Japanese semiconductor silicon provider Shin-Etsu Chemical Co, with 279, up 22 percent; US wafer-fabrication equipment supplier Lam Research Corp, with 276, up 12 percent; and Japanese semiconductor equipment supplier Screen Holdings Co, with 253, down 2 percent.
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