經通國際智慧產權事務所

Date Posted：2019-05-06

In Q1 2019, TIPO received a total of 17,243 applications for invention, utility model and design patents, a 2% decrease from the same period of last year. Of these, design patent applications grew for three consecutive quarters. Applications for trademark registrations (19,475 cases) were down by 4%. The numbers of invention patent applications filed by domestic applicants remained stable, while design patent applications filed by non-residents saw huge growth. Among domestic applicants, AU OPTRONICS filed the most invention patent applications and Alibaba, in terms of foreign applicants, topped the list.

Patent

• Invention patents (11,303 cases) and utility model patents (3,956 cases) were down by 1% and 8% respectively, while design patents (1,984 cases) were up by 2%, a growth for three consecutive quarters (Table 1).
• Of residents’ applications, the number of invention patents (4,067 cases) remained stable. Both the numbers of utility model patents (3,689 cases) and design patents (940 cases) fell (Table 1). As to non-residents, the numbers of invention patents (7,236 cases) and utility model patents (267 cases) were down, while that of design patents (1,044 cases) was up by 18% (Table 1). The number of design patent applications grew rapidly mainly due to an increase in French, Japan and US applications (Figure 1), indicating the protection for product appearance is being emphasized much more by non-residents in the Taiwan market.
• Both the number of invention patent applications filed by domestic enterprises and their ratio to domestic invention patent applications grew over the same period last year. AU OPTRONICS topped the list with 187 cases. TSMC (163 cases) and ACER (96 cases) stood at the second and the third spot respectively. The top three enterprises saw a huge growth between 23% and 68% (Figure 2).
• Invention patent applications filed by domestic colleges and research institutions were both down over the same period.
• Looking at a breakdown by nationality of non-residents, Japan topped the list with 3,669 cases of invention patent applications (Figure 1). Among the largest filing companies, ALIBABA came on top with 267 cases and outperformed others by a year-on-year increase of 251% in this period (Figure 2).

Trademark

• The number of new applications for trademark registration (19,475 cases) in Q1 2019 decreased by 4% from the same period of last year. Applications filed by residents (14,004 cases) and non-residents (5,471 cases) were down by 2% and 8% respectively (Table 1). Applications filed by major countries, such as Japan and the US, saw a decline resulting in a larger decrease of non-residents’ applications (Figure 1).
• As to non-residents, mainland China stayed on top with 1,331 cases, followed by Japan (1,102 cases) and the US (879 cases). Applications filed by the top five filing countries (regions) primarily are in Asia, indicating their aggressive portfolio of trademark registration in Taiwan (Figure 3).

Download: TIPO’s Q1 2019 IPR Statistics Report.pdf

Intellectual Property Office Ministry of Economic Affairs, R.O.C.