Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker, retained the title of No. 1 invention patent applicant in the country in the first half of this year, according to the Intellectual Property Office under the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
As well as TSMC topping the list of Taiwanese companies, it was also ahead of all foreign applicants in the six-month period, the office said.
Data compiled by the office showed TSMC filed 1,171 invention patent applications, up 1 percent from a year earlier, making the chipmaker the largest invention patent applicant in Taiwan for the seventh year in a row.
Among foreign companies, South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. was the top invention patent applicant after it filed 430 applications in the first half of the year, a 48 percent rise from a year earlier, the data showed.
Under Taiwan law, patents are categorized into three groups -- invention, utility model and design -- and invention patents are considered the most important in terms of developing new technology.
The office said artificial intelligence development led to an increase in high-performance computing applications, which pushed up demand for TSMC's high-end processes and led the company to seek more invention patents.
The 3-nanometer process is the latest technology that TSMC is using in mass production in Taiwan. In addition, the company is developing the more sophisticated 2nm process which is slated to begin commercial production in 2025, while the chipmaker is also planning to explore using the 1.4nm process.
After TSMC, smartphone IC designer MediaTek Inc. came in second after filing 321 invention patents in the six month period, the highest level for the company and up 114 percent from a year earlier, followed by flat panel maker AUO Corp. (228, up 3 percent), dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip supplier Nanya Technology Corp. (219, down 12 percent), and flat screen supplier Innolux Corp. (181, up 1 percent).
Rounding out the top 10 local patent application companies were communication network IC designer Realtek Semiconductor Corp. (145, down 21 percent), contract notebook computer maker Inventec Corp. (132, up 23 percent), PC brand Acer Inc. (89, down 37 percent), power management solution provider Delta Electronics Inc. (80, up 8 percent), and Wistron Corp., another contract notebook computer producer (77, down 18 percent).
The office said the increase in invention patent applications from MediaTek, Innolux and Inventec provided more evidence that AI development had fueled the increase.
The office added that with AI applications on the rise globally, enterprises are likely to seek more patents by filing even more applications in the second half of this year.
Following Samsung, American semiconductor equipment supplier Applied Materials Inc. took the second spot among foreign applicants after filing 341 invention patents in the six month period, down 22 percent from a year earlier, ahead of American smartphone IC designer Qualcomm Inc. (316, down 22 percent), Japanese electrical product maker Nitto Denko Corp. (254, up 10 percent), and Japan-based semiconductor supplier Tokyo Electron Ltd. (249, down 8 percent).
The office said the filing of 430 invention patents marked the first time Samsung had filed more than 400 in Taiwan.
In the first half of this year, a total of 24,256 invention patents were filed, down 0.2 percent from a year earlier, with 9,390 of them from local entities, up 0.4 percent and 14,866 from foreign entities, down 1 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.
In terms of trademarks, food brand Uni-President Enterprises Corp. ranked as the largest local applicant in the first half of this year after filing 239 applications, while China-based automaker SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co. was the top foreign trade mark applicant in Taiwan with 84 applications, the office said.
