Hon Hai ranked Number 1 for 8 Straight Years with the Highest Number of Patent Applications Granted

2011-03-15

TIPO published the statistics on the number of patent applications filed and granted in 2010. The total number of patent applications filed is 80,494, which is an increase of 2,069 applications when compared with that filed in 2009. The growth rate of 2.64% shows the financial crisis is having less impact year after year. Within the top 10 local entities that filed patent applications in 2010, most increased the number of patent applications filed when compared with 2009. Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. ranks No. 1 for 8 straight years with 4,412 applications filed and 1,535 granted. Hon Hai can certainly be called the king of inventions among dometsic enterprises.
Among domestic entities, ITRI and AUO rank No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, in the number of applications filed. ITRI filed 740 applications, whereas AUP filed 671. In terms of the number of granted patents, ITRI with 427 patents is ranked No. 2, whereas Foxlink with 402 granted patents is ranked No. 3.

Among foreign entities, the top three entities in terms of the number of patent applications filed are Qualcomm Incorporated (with 1,442 applications), Sony Corporation (with 562 applications), and Koninklijke Philip Electronics N.V (with 356 applications). Qualcomm increased the number of applications filed by 212 from 2009, which is a growth of 17.24% in this gloomy economy. In terms of the number of patents granted, Sony Corporation received the most patent grants in 2010 (with 234 patents) among the foreign entities.

In 2010, domestic academic institutes also obtain great results in patent filings. Within the top 100 domestic entities, 30 of which are academic institutes in terms of the number of patents filed. Among which, Far East University is ranked No. 5 among the domestic entity and No. 1 among the academic institutes with 418 applications filed. However, most of the applications filed are utility model applications. National Cheng Kung University is ranked No. 8 this year with 279 applications and 274 of which is invention patents. National Cheng Kung University is also ranked No. 5 in terms of the number of invention patent applications filed, and is the academic institute with the most invention patent applications filed. Additionally, Wu-Feng University and National Taiwan University both filed more than 200 patent applications. Although the academic institutes have paid more attention on education and fundamental research, they have also accumulated a lot of R&D and innovation potential. These institutes have become more active in obtaining intellectual property rights.

The number of patent applications filed after the series of financial crisis has increased in 2010, indicating the economy is improving and has a positive outlook. Regardless of where the economy goes from here, intellectual property right will still be a means for the enterprises to lead the technology and compete with their competitors to maintain market shares. TIPO encourages all sectors to utilize R&D resources and continue developing high quality innovations to improve the overall competitiveness of both the industry and the country, thereby establishing the leading position in the global market.

The statistics mentioned above can be found on TIPO’s official website, under Patent, Patent Statistics.（http://www.tipo.gov.tw/ch/NodeTree.aspx?path=48）

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