Semiconductor is the dominant technical field for invention patent filings in Taiwan

　On September 16, 2024, the Department of Statistics, Ministry of Economic Affairs issued a press release reporting the statistics of invention patent applications in Taiwan as outlined below.  

　1.  Invention patent applications comprised more than 70% of the overall patent filings in Taiwan throughout 2023.  
　　
　Governments worldwide have been establishing patent systems to encourage innovation, protect inventors’ rights and also to guide patent holders and the public in utilizing inventions in legal and appropriate manners, so as to enhance industrial development.  Observation of patent filings in recent years reveals that the number of patent filings in Taiwan in 2020 dropped to 72,000 applications, marking a 3.2% annual decline as a result of the global economy being weighed down by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.  After that, annual growth has fluctuated slightly, with a modest increase by 0.8% in 2023 and a further 0.2% rise from January through July 2024.  Analysis by types of patent applications shows that invention patent applications made up the largest share of all patent filings, exceeding 70% for the first time in 2023 before dipping marginally to 69.4% in the period from January through July 2024, while utility model patent applications and design patent applications accounted for 20.3% and 10.3% of the total filings, respectively.  

　2.  Semiconductors are the leading subject matter of invention patent applications in Taiwan.  

　In 2022, the top three technical fields of invention patent applications filed in Taiwan were “semiconductors” (with a share of 14.5%), “computer technology” (9%), and “electrical machinery, apparatus, energy” (6.1%), all of which are the leading fields of Taiwan’s manufacturing industry.  The field of “semiconductors” saw the largest increase by 3.6% compared to 2020.  Furthermore, the analysis by applicant nationality indicates that the top three technical fields for resident applications were also “semiconductors”, “computer technology”, and “electrical machinery, apparatus, energy” in that order, while the non-resident applications from Japan, the U.S., China, and South Korea were filed mostly for “semiconductors”.  In addition, the applicants from Japan and the U.S. presented prominent performance in the fields like “macromolecular chemistry, polymers” and “pharmaceuticals”.  

　3.  Non-resident applications make up more than 60% of invention patent applications filed in Taiwan

　In terms of applicant nationality for invention patent applications filed in Taiwan, non-resident applicants have consistently been the majority, and the ratio between resident filings and non-resident filings is 4:6.  In the period between January and July of 2024, non-resident applications accounted for 61.8% of all patent filings; Japan took the top spot with 25%, followed by the U.S. with 13.4% at No. 2, China with 6.6% at No. 3, and South Korea with 6.0% at No. 4.

　4.  11%~13% of applicants of invention patents are female individuals. 

　Due to the facts that invention patents are technical innovation closely linked to one’s professional background and most patents are technology-focused and require expertise in science and engineering which is received as part of education by more men than women in Taiwan, gender distribution in this field is affected accordingly and that is why male individuals have consistently comprised more than 80% of invention patent applicants in recent years.  However, it is notable that the percentage of women listed as inventors for 2020~2023 is 11%~13%.  (Released 2024.09.16)
/CCS