Manufacturing Firms in Taiwan Increase R & D Spending The Ministry of Economic Affairs released data for 2023 showing listed manufacturing companies accelerated their research and development spending to a record high of NT 692.7 billion dollars in the face of a dip in sales and profits.  The spending was up 2.9% from 2022, driven mainly by expenditures by those in the electronic parts, computer products and optical components industries.  Companies in the electronic components sector spent NT 450.7 billion dollars on R & D last year, up 2.2% and accounted for 65.1% of overall spending, while those in the computer products and optical components sector spent NT 158 billion dollars, up 4% and contributing 22.8% of the total.  In terms of individual companies, global foundry giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) headed the list with R & D spending of NT 178.7 billion dollars, up 11.1% from 2022 and accounted for 25.8% of the total.  Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc. came in second with spending of NT 80.6 billion dollars and networking chip designer Realtek Semiconductor Corp. was in third place at NT 20.1 billion dollars.  Despite the inclement economic weather, firms in Taiwan have still been developing technologies to maintain their leading edge in the market. Summary of Operating Procedures for Accelerated Examination of Trademark Applications in Taiwan The Trademark Act was amended last year to cater to those who needed an accelerated examination of their trademark application.  The amendment came into effect on May 1, 2024.  To help applicants prepare for the accelerated examination, the Operating Procedures for Accelerated Examination of Trademark Applications were announced on...

Taiwan Issues Report on Patent Trends for Semiconductor Industry Waste Management The Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) recently issued a report titled Analysis of Patent Trends of Key Technologies for Waste Treatment in the Semiconductor Industry.  The document looked at patent applications related to waste treatment of copper, silica mud and hydrogen in the semiconductor industry. Regarding applications related to copper recycling, the patent offices of the US, Japan, Europe, China and Korea ranked as the top five patent offices in terms of the number of patent applications and accounted for approximately 70% of patent applications in this field worldwide. Looking at the data regionally, applicants from various Asian countries accounted for 62% of the worldwide total, but European, American and Australian applicants also filed a significant number of patent applications reflecting their long histories of large mining companies and their continued development of their technological level such as in the fields of pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, microbial metallurgy and other processing means. Regarding applications related to silica mud recycling, the abovementioned five major patent offices plus TIPO accounted for 93% of patent applications in this field worldwide. Regionally, applicants from Asian countries filed the majority of patent applications totaling 86.5% worldwide.  By contrast, Europe and American applicants only came to 7.2% worldwide, reflecting that Asian applicants had more initiative to develop technologies related to the various types of solid liquid separation such as filtration, centrifugation, flotation, fusion, vaporization, magnetic separation, gravity separation, hydrocyclone, electrostatic separation and vacuum microwave drying. Regarding applications related to hydrogen recovery, except for the Korean office, the other four major ranked offices were the biggest source...