China's Taiwan region is a very special existence in China's intellectual property field. Due to geopolitical reasons, Taiwan is not a PCT contracting party, so the applicant cannot enter the national phase through the PCT application. However, according to the State Intellectual Property Office Order No. 58 promulgated by the State Intellectual Property Administration on November 22, 2010, the mainland and Taiwan can mutually recognize priority, which provides theoretical support for mainland applicants to apply for patents in Taiwan. After the promulgation of the office order, a large number of patent applications from Taiwan, which enjoys the right of Taiwan priority, poured into the mainland. However, most applicants from mainland China do not seem to have a good understanding of the patent situation in Taiwan. Today we will take a look at the overview of patent applications in Taiwan.
Recently, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office released a report on the development trend of intellectual property rights in the first half of 2022. According to the report, in the first half of 2022, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office received a total of 34,753 patent applications of three types, a slight decrease of 1% compared with the same period last year, and 46,578 trademark applications, a slight increase of 0.4%.
01 The number of invention patent applications increased slightly
In terms of invention patents, the number of applications from large domestic enterprises and colleges and universities in Taiwan increased by 3% each, and the number of applications from Taiwan increased by 6%. Among the applicants, TSMC filed the largest number of applications, reaching 1,163, ranking the highest in Taiwan for 6 consecutive years Local applicants topped the list, while foreigners outside Taiwan had the most applications for application materials, reaching 438.
For trademark applications, [agricultural food materials] is the largest application category. Taiwanese applicants and foreigners have applied for a total of 13,240 trademarks in the category of [agricultural food materials], and a total of 3,964 applications in the category of [technical research]. Both maintained positive growth; among the trademark applicants, the Taiwanese company "Unified Enterprise" applied for a total of 548 trademarks, which is the largest trademark applicant in Taiwan; while the mainland Chinese company "Guangdong Longshun International Logistics" ranked the top with 85 applications top of the list.
Among the three types of patents accepted, there were 24,316 invention patents, a slight increase of 2% over the same period last year, mainly due to the increase in the number of patents from foreign applicants, while the number of utility model and design patent applications showed negative growth .
02 TSMC has the largest number of invention patent applications / Acer has the largest number of design patent applications
Taiwan’s domestic enterprises applied for a total of 7,454 invention patents, a decrease of 3% compared with the same period last year. The main reason for the decline was that the number of patent applications for small and medium-sized enterprises decreased significantly, to about 1,332, while large enterprises applied for a total of 6,122, an increase of 3%. Major companies are still maintaining R&D capabilities.
Most of the top ten applicants for invention patents and the top five applicants for design patents in Taiwan are enterprises. TSMC has filed 1,163 invention patent applications, ranking first among Taiwan’s local enterprise applicants for 6 consecutive years. Nanya Technology and Innolux have filed 249 and 179 patent applications respectively, setting the highest record since 2016.
Among the appearance design applications, the top five applicants are: Acer 74, the largest number of applications, ranking first, Compal (28 applications), Crown Metal (26 applications), and Chang Gung University of Science and Technology (26 applications) increased by 64%-550% respectively , growing rapidly.
03 The number of invention patents in Taiwan's local colleges and universities and the financial industry has increased
There were 840 applications for invention patents from Taiwan’s domestic colleges and universities, an increase of 3% over the same period last year, probably due to the increase in the number of applications from public universities. Among them, Tsinghua University ranks first among all schools with 65 invention patents.
04 The number of invention patent applications by foreigners outside Taiwan increased by 6%
Patent applications by foreigners outside of Taiwan are mainly invention patent applications, with a total of 14,960. Among the top five applicant countries, Japan has the most with 6,193, and the United States ranks second with 3,759, an increase of up to 16%, and the performance is the most active. . Among the 1,864 design patent applications, Japan filed the most with 519.
Among the top ten foreign applicants, invention patent applications topped the list with 438 applications and a growth rate of 44%, surpassing other applicants. Among the design patent applicants, Ford Global Technology ranked first with 89, while Cartier applied for a total of 43 design patents in the first half of the year, with the highest growth rate of 1.3%.
Top 5 countries applying for patents/trademarks in Taiwan
05 The number of trademark applications increased slightly
In the first half of 2022, a total of 46,578 trademark applications were accepted in Taiwan, a slight increase of 0.4% over the same period of the previous year, and the categories were also expanded to 60,963 categories, an increase of 2%; Taiwanese applicants applied for a total of 36,449 trademark applications, an increase of 4%. In contrast, domestic and foreign applicants in Taiwan applied for a total of 10,129 trademarks, a decrease compared with the same period last year.
Trademark applications in the first half of 2022
Local applicants from Taiwan applied for a total of 7,378 applications in category 35 (advertising, business operations, retail and wholesale services, etc.). Among them, Uni-President Enterprises applied for 548 applications, an increase of 294%, far exceeding other applicants. Foreign applicants from Taiwan applied for a total of 2,329 applications in category 9 (computer and technology products, etc.), among which "Guangdong Longshun International Logistics" in mainland China applied for 85 applications, which was the highest increase compared with 0 applications in the same period last year.
Top five categories of trademark applications by local applicants in Taiwan
