CNA file photo
Taipei, Sept. 9 (CNA) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker, ranked as the largest invention patent applicant in Taiwan for the fourth consecutive year in 2022, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).
Statistics compiled by the MOEA's Intellectual Property Office showed TSMC filed 1,534 invention patent applications in 2022, down 21.3 percent from a year earlier but still continued to be the largest applicant in the country.
Under Taiwan law, patents are categorized into three groups -- invention, utility model and design -- and invention patents are considered the most important in terms of new technology ideas.
TSMC's efforts to seek invention patents showed the chipmaker has been eager to develop advanced technologies to maintain the lead over its peers.
TSMC began commercial production of the 3nm process at the end of 2022, and is currently working to develop a sophisticated 2-nanometer chip-making process, which the chipmaker said is scheduled to enter mass production in 2025.
After TSMC, U.S. semiconductor equipment supplier Applied Materials Inc. took the second spot by filing 847 invention patent applications in 2022, up 11.7 percent, ahead of U.S.-based smartphone IC designer Qualcomm Inc. (763 applications, down 9.7 percent), South Korea's electronics giant Samsung Electronics Co. (666, up 30.6 percent), and Japan-based semiconductor supplier Tokyo Electron Ltd. (486, up 5.0 percent), the office said.
Rounding out the top 10 local invention patent application companies here were Taiwan's flat panel maker AUO Corp. (479, up 4.1 percent), Japanese electrical product maker Nitto Denko Corp. (445, down 15.9 percent), Japan's memory chip supplier Kioxia Corp. (436, down 4.6 percent), Taiwan's smartphone IC designer MediaTek Inc. (409, up 64.3 percent), and Taiwan's dynamic memory random access (DRAM) chip supplier Nanya Technology Corp. (371, up 27.9 percent), the office's data showed.
In 2022, Taiwan received 50,242 invention patent applications, up 2.3 percent from a year earlier with the semiconductor industry as the top applicant, which accounted for 14.5 percent of the total, followed by the computing technology industry (9.0 percent), the electronics/machinery/energy device industry (6.1 percent), the optoelectronics industry (5.1 percent), and the video/audio technology industry (4.6 percent), according to the office.
The office said Taiwan has served as a hub for the global semiconductor industry, and led by TSMC and other major IC suppliers, the country has developed a semiconductor cluster, paving the way for an increase in invention patent applications.
The office added with an increase in 6G, electric vehicles and artificial intelligence development, tech firms have been keen to seek more invention patents in areas such as computing technology and digital communications.
The office also released the patent application data from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which ranked Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co. as the top invention applicant in the world after filing 7,689 applications in 2022, up 10.6 percent, ahead of Samsung (4,387, up 44.3 percent), Qualcomm (3,855, down 1.9 percent), Japan's Mitsubishi Electric Corp. (2,320, down 13.2 percent), and Sweden's telecom equipment brand L.M. Ericsson (2,158, up 15.0 percent).
According to the office, the WIPO received about 278,000 invention patent applications in 2022, up 0.3 percent from a year earlier, and the growth was the lowest since 2009.
The office said the computing technology industry was the top applicant with the WIPO, accounting for 10.4 percent of the total, ahead by the digital communications industry (9.4 percent), the electronics, machinery and energy device industry (7.1 percent), and the medical technology industry (7.0 percent), and the measuring technology industry (4.6 percent).
TSMC top invention patent applicant in Taiwan for 4th straight year in 2022 - Focus Taiwan
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker, ranked as the largest invention patent applicant in Taiwan for the fourth consecutive year in 2022, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).
focustaiwan.tw