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How are you doing, Taiwan?

24 August 2020

How are you doing, Taiwan?

From January to June 2020, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office received 33,954 applications for invention, utility model, and design patents, marking a four percent decrease over the same period in 2019. On the other hand, the number of trademark applications hit a record high with 43,385 cases. In terms of invention patent applications, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company topped domestic applicants and Qualcomm topped foreign applicants. The applications by domestic small and medium enterprises grew by 14 percent.

One of the causes for the slight drop in patent applications is Covid-19. “Luckily, Taiwan took comprehensive precautions to prevent further spread earlier than many jurisdictions so that there is no shutdown in Taiwan and the impact of the pandemic here is not so big comparing to other places,” says Marilou Hsieh, general manager at Giant Group in Taipei. “Most business activities have remained the same and almost all companies, schools and shops are already back to normal. So even though the filings from international applicants decrease, domestic filings are not influenced a lot.”

As far as the increase of trademark applications, one of the reasons could be due to the trade war between China and the United States, Hsieh says. “We know that some companies have decided to invest more in Taiwan than before. Secondly, Taiwan has been noticed and receiving a lot more global attention due to the successful prevention on the spread of Covid-19 and the charitable move of sending medical face masks to other suffered countries. Thirdly, domestic and international applicants have become more interested than ever to invest and protect their brands and products. Last but not least, local small and medium enterprises are very sensitive and good at finding business opportunities from those affected by the pandemic.”

After seeing the big picture, let’s take a look at the nuts and bolts!

 

Patent

  • Domestic enterprises registered a one percent growth for the number of invention patent applications filed, and their share accounted for over 75 percent of total domestic invention patent applications, a main driving force for innovation in Taiwan. Of these, SMEs’ applications were up by 14 percent, marking over 10 percent growth for the second consecutive year.
  • As for applicants, TSMC topped the list with 375 cases, and MediaTek, a Taiwanese fabless semiconductor company (211 cases) and AU Optronics, a Taiwanese specialist of optoelectronic solutions (210 cases) stood at the second and third spot, respectively. TSMC outnumbered the others for the fourth year in a row.
  • Invention patent applications filed by domestic colleges and research institutions increased by 19 percent and two percent, respectively.
  • As far as non-resident applicants, Japan came in first with 6,105 invention patent applications filed. Among the top filing foreign companies, Qualcomm ranked first with 304 cases, representing a growth of 14 percent over the same period last year. As for design patents, Japan also came out on top with 497 cases, while Ford was the company with the most design patents filed (114 cases).

 

Trademark

  • The number of new applications for trademark registration (43,385 cases) saw a three percent increase from the same period in 2019. Applications by residents (32,843 cases) grew by 10 percent, whereas those by non-residents (10,542 cases) fell. Applications by residents reached a record high not seen since 2000.
  • The share of applications by residents rose from 71 percent in the first half of 2019 to 76 percent in the first half of 2020, showing a higher concentration of domestic applications.
  • A breakdown by Nice class shows that class 35 (advertising, business management, etc.) received the most cases (5,955) by residents. All top five classes saw positive growth, with class 5 (pharmaceuticals, etc.) registering the highest growth at 24 percent. As to applicants, Uni-President Enterprises, an international food conglomerate based in Tainan, led with 228 cases.
  • Of non-residents’ trademark applications, China stayed on top with 2,289 cases. Class 9 (computer and technology products, etc.) received the most cases (2,100) by non-residents. The top five classes all saw a decrease during this period. Among non-resident applicants, Huawei filed the most applications with 95 cases.

 

Johnny Chan


Law firms