April 26, 2023
TSMC Tops List of Patent Applications in Taiwan For the seventh consecutive year, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, took the top spot among patent applicants in Taiwan. The latest figures just in are for 2022, and TSMC filed a total of 1,534 applications, which was actually a 21% drop from 2021. All of TSMC’s patent applications were for invention patents. Last year, the total number of invention patent applications stood at 50,242 cases, which was a 10-year high. Of the foreign applicants, US-based semiconductor equipment supplier Applied Materials Inc. last year was Taiwan’s largest patent seeker, filing 881 applications comprising 847 invention patents, 2 utility model patents and 32 design patents. Qualcomm dropped from first to second place with 763 applications, which was 10% lower than 2021. South Korean conglomerate Samsung Electronics Co. took third place in the foreign applicants’ rankings with 675 applications, an increase of 30%, followed by Japan-based semiconductor supplier Tokyo Electron Ltd. with 487 applications. Most of the foreign patent applicants were from the semiconductor, information technology and chemical industries. Categorized by country, Japan held the top spot with 13,128 applications, the US was second with 8,517 and China third with 4,424. Amongst local applicants, PC brand Acer was second last year with a total of 530 patent applications, which was an increase of 15%. Third was flat panel maker AUO Corp. with 505, up 7% and ahead of smartphone IC designer MediaTek Inc. with 412 applications in fourth position. It should be noted that Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. was not in the leading ranks of applicants because a... 
