According to TIPO’s 2021 Statistical Rankings for Patent Applications and Grants, TSMC was the top domestic applicant for invention, utility model, and design patents, with 1,950 applications filed. The company has held on to its lead for the sixth consecutive year now. As for foreign applicants, Qualcomm reclaimed the top spot, having filed a total of 845 applications. With respect to the number of patents granted for all three patent types, TSMC led the pack for domestic applications (1,053 patents granted), and Applied Materials was the most successful foreign applicant (492 patents granted). Invention patent applications by domestic corporations and research institutions of the top 100 went up by 17% and 11% respectively.

As regards domestic applicants, TSMC has consistently filed the most applications since 2016. In 2021, that number surged by 78% to 1,950 cases, followed by AU Optronics (471 cases). Realtek Semiconductor (442 cases) and Nanya Tech (290 cases) each filed their highest number of applications ever, coming in fourth and sixth respectively. Delta Electronics moved back up to top 10 with 205 applications (up 18%).

The top 100 domestic patent applicants filed 12,234 cases in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 8%. This is mainly driven by a 13% rise in the number of invention patent applications (75%), of which corporations  increased by 17% and research institutions by 11%. The filings in design patent applications also grew by 1%. However, the filings in utility model patent applications fell by 7%, mainly due to a decrease of 20% for filings by educational institutions.

Five research centers were also among the top 100 domestic applicants for patents of any type. Placing fifth in the overall rankings was the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) with 404 applications. Metal Industries Research & Development Center came in second with 89 cases.

As for the top 10 foreign applicants, Qualcomm remained in top position with 845 patent applications, marking an increase of 17%. Altogether, there were four semiconductor equipment manufacturers in the top ten, and among them, Applied Materials (793 cases), Tokyo Electron (477 cases) and DISCO (225 cases) came in second, fifth and tenth, respectively. In addition, ASML (265 cases) filed its highest number of applications and moved up to the eighth position. Samsung Electronics ranked fourth with 520 cases, marking the highest growth rate of 98% among the top 10.

The top 100 foreign patent applicants filed 14,149 cases (+5%) in 2021, of which invention patent applications accounted for 87%. The filings in invention patent applications rose by 5%, while utility model and design patent applications also grew by 3% and 6% respectively.

• Publish Date : 2022-03-14
• Update : 2022-03-14
• Organization : International Legal Affairs Office
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