TIPO Statistics Report: Patent and Trademark Applications in 2015 - 2016.03.24

In 2015, overall applications dropped 5.6% from the previous year to 73,627 cases. Invention patent applications (44,415 cases) saw decline for the third year in a row. In trademark, applications (78,523 cases) reached a peak in ten years. Thanks to TIPO’s active management of examination efficiency, the average pendency for disposal of invention patents in December 2015 was shortened to 22.9 months, and pending applications were lowered to 72,510 cases.

Overall applications for invention (44,415 cases), utility model (21,404 cases), and design (7,808 cases) were all down from the previous year with inventions dropping by 1,963 cases (-4.2%)(Fig. 1). In all, inventions showed a smaller decline than the previous year whereas the drop in utility models (-2,084 cases or -8.9%) became greater over the past three years...read more

IPR Trends Q4 2015: Patent and Trademark Statistics - 2016.02.16

A.Patent Applications
1.The number of new applications for all three types of patents came down by 2.25% to 20,171 cases.
2.Applications for invention (12,390) and utility model (5,682) patents decreased by 0.6% and 6.76%, respectively. Design (2,099) applications, conversely, grew by 1.11% (Table 1).
3.The number of invention applications (5,198) filed by residents dropped by 5.18%, whereas those filed by non-residents (7,192) went up by 2.99% (Table 1).
4.Breakdown by country, Japan (3,081) topped the list, followed by the US (2,046), South Korea (449), China (402), and Germany (342) (Fig.1).
5.The top five domestic corporations applying for invention patents were Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) (333), Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) (291), Inventec (181), Metal Industries Research & Development Center (MIRDC) (118), Acer (89). Hon Hai (83) and AU Optronics (74), however, dropped a few notches to the 6th and 8th place, respectively (Fig.2).
6.As for foreign corporations, Intel (393) topped the list, followed by Semiconductor Energy Laboratory (104), Tokyo Electron (98), Nitto Denko (91), and Applied Materials (90) (Fig.2)...read more

Amended Patent Attorney Act now effective - 2016.01.29

Since its promulgation in 2007, the Patent Attorney Act has only been amended once, which took place in 2009. There are, however, provisions on key practices that require further amendment. To this purpose, TIPO began the amendment process. The Act was later promulgated on July 1, 2015, and then became effective on January 1, 2016. Key revisions include:
1. Simplifying administrative procedures
The provision that requires registration for patent attorney practices is deleted. A patent attorney now has to complete pre-employment training to apply for certificate.

2. Employment by a registered corporation
In addition to setting up a law firm and working for a patent firm, a patent attorney can now be employed by a registered corporation...read more

Encourage Universities to Apply for Patents to Protect their R&D Results and Promote Dissemination - 2016.01.20

The number of patent applications filed by local colleges and universities dropped 11.3% to 4,275 in 2014 from the peak of 4,817 in 2013. In addition, their applications filed in the three quarters of 2015 also decreased by 10% compared to the same period of 2014. The applications from national universities were mostly for invention patents while those from private universities were mostly for utility model patents. Overall, these universities outperformed in applications for the areas of medical and healthcare as well as pharmaceutical and biotech.

In the past few years, over 50% of the patent applications filed by the top 10 national universities were for invention patents. In particular, the invention patent applications accounted for over 95.5% of the total patent applications filed by the National Tsing Hua University for a long time...read more