經通國際智慧產權事務所

In the first half of 2019, TIPO received a total of 35,534 applications for invention, utility model, and design patents, marking a 1% increase over the same period of last year. Among them, the number of design patent applications grew by 10%. The number of trademark registration applications (41,986 cases) remained steady. The numbers of invention patent applications filed by residents and design patent applications by non-residents increased by 2% and 30% respectively. As to invention patent applications, TSMC topped domestic applicants and ALIBABA topped foreign applicants.
 

Patent

• Invention patents (22,775 cases) and design patents (4,259 cases) increased by 1% and 10% respectively, whereas utility model patents (8,500 cases) dropped by 5% (see Table 1).
• Of the three types of patent applications filed by residents, the number of invention patents (8,563 cases) grew by 2%, whereas applications for utility model patents (7,978 cases) and design patents (1,960 cases) fell. As for non-residents, the numbers of invention patents (14,212 cases) and design patents (2,299 cases) increased, whereas applications for utility model patents (522 cases) were down (see Table 1). Design patent applications filed by non-residents saw a growth by 30% mainly because of a significant increase in applications by French applicants (see Figure 1).
• There was growth in the number of invention patent applications filed by domestic enterprises. TSMC topped with 429 cases, and it was followed by AU OPTRONICS (318 cases) and MEDIATEK (163 cases). The top two enterprises respectively saw a large growth of 24% and 30% over the same period of last year (see Figure 2). In addition, domestic SMEs’ invention patent applications saw an incremental growth for the third consecutive year, reaching 16% in the first half of 2019. This points to SMEs gradually placing more importance on using patents to protect R&D results.
• Invention patent applications filed by domestic colleges and research institutions were both down.
• Breakdown by nationality of non-residents, Japan led by 6,707 invention patent applications (see Figure 1). Among invention patent filing giants, ALIBABA topped with 408 cases, accounting for a significant growth of 92% over the same period of last year (see Figure 2). As to design patent, Japan again topped with 704 applications and France increased by 400%, marking a remarkable growth (see Figure 1). Among the largest design patent filing companies, RENAULT topped with 102 cases.

Trademark

• The number of new applications for trademark registration (41,986 cases) was not much different from the same period of last year. Applications by residents (29,957 cases) grew slightly by 0.2%. Applications by non-residents (12,029 cases) slipped 2% mainly because of the decline in US and Hong Kong applications (see Table 1).
• As for non-residents, mainland China topped with 2,958 cases, followed by Japan (2,249 cases) and the US (1,828 cases) (see Figure 1). Among the top-five filing countries (regions), four of them are in Asia. Applications by residents from these Asian countries (regions) grew slightly.

2019-08-12