TSMC ousts Hon Hai from Top Spot for Domestic Invention Patent Applicants in Taiwan in Q3

Semiconductor foundry TSMC was the top domestic applicant for invention patents in Taiwan in Q3 of 2016, ousting Hon Hai (Foxconn) from the top spot, according to a report from the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office.

Overall patent applications saw year-on-year growth of 0.34% to 18,121 in Q3, breaking a 13 quarter streak of year-on-year decreases in quarterly patent applications, with growth in applications from both domestic and foreign applicants of 0.28% and 0.42% respectively. Applications for invention patents fell by 0.89% in the quarter, with both foreign and domestic applications falling by 0.59% and 1.06% respectively. Utility model applications also fell in the quarter by 1.75% year on year from 5,135 to 5,045, with domestic applications down 2.28% although foreign applications grew 6.56% from 395 to 325. The source of growth in the quarter seems largely down to the significant increases in design applications, up 12.59% year on year from 1,978 to 2,227. Reflecting the decreased growth in the preceding two quarters, the cumulative total of all three kinds of patent application from Q1-Q3 was down 1.57% year on year to 52,615.

Trademark applications saw a decrease of 2.11% year on year in Q3 to 19,874, with decreases of 1.44% and 3.87 in applications from domestic and foreign applicants respectively. The cumulative total of trademark applications in Q1-Q3 was up slightly year on year by 0.23% to 58,143, however, driven largely by a year on year boost of 1.66% in applications from foreign applicants.

Japanese applicants filed the most invention patent applications in Q3 with 3,069, down 1.91% year on year, followed by the US with 1,753 applications, down 0.85% year on year, then South Korea, with 442 applications, down 0.9% year on year, then China with 335 applications, down 5.37% year on year, and Germany with 314 applications, down 7.37% year on year.

China was the largest foreign source of trademark applications in Q3 of 2016 with 957 applications, down 9.29% year on year, followed by Japan with 910 applications, up 5.08% year on year, with the US, Hong Kong and South Korea filling out the rest of the top 5, with 875, 400 and 272 applications respectively.

The top five domestic corporations and research institutions in terms of invention patent applications in Q3 were TSMC with 211 applications, Hon Hai with 88, the non-profit Industrial Technology Research Institute with 66, AU Optronics with 59 and Acer with 46. The top two foreign corporations in terms of invention patent applications in Q3 were US-based chipmakers Intel and Qualcomm with 220 and 168 applications respectively. Japanese IC maker Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co was in third place with 119 applications, followed by Japanese LCD maker Nitto Denko with 83 applications and semiconductor firm Tokyo Electron with 71.

Guangzhou Firms Receives RMB500,000 Intellectual Property Maintenance Grant After Successful Defense Overseas

Two Guangzhou firms, Comba Telecom Systems Holdings and OED Tech, have received grants of RMB500,000 (US$73,830) each from the city of Guangzhou for successfully defending their intellectual property overseas, according to the government-run China News Service.

"If we hadn't defended ourselves in the infringement suit in Brazil, our products would not only be banned from sale there, but we would also have had to withdraw our factories there. The losses would have been huge." said Yu Hong, the head of IP for Comba, referring to an infringement suit brought by the Brazilian subsidiary of the US-based Andrew Corporation, according to the media service.

Comba provides wireless services and had a 16% share of the global market in 2013, which has cut into the market share of rivals like Andrew, according to the media outlet. "Since 2006, Andrew Corporation has accused Comba's remote electrical tilt antenna system product of infringing its patent. Andrew launched civil and criminal infringement suits in Brazil in August of 2011 and requested an injunction against sales of the product by Comba.

Comba then initiated invalidation proceedings, which resulted in the complete invalidation of Andrew Corp's patent. The infringement suit was subsequently rejected by the Brazilian court in April of 2016.

In 2012, US-based firm E-Ink filed a complaint with the Mannheim District Court in Germany, alleging that the Pyrus e-reader produced by German-based Trekstor, which uses materials supplied by OED Tech, violated two of E-Ink's German patents. OET Tech acquired the services of a European law firm to defend them in the suit. Two years later, in December of 2014 and February of 2015, the German Federal Patent Court opened invalidation proceedings brought by OED Tech against the two E-Ink patents, which judged them to be lacking in originality and therefore invalid.

JPO and KIPO Commissioners Strengthen Global IP Ties at 56^th WIPO Assembly Meetings

The commissioners of the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) and the Japan Patent Office Choi Dongyou and Yoshinori Komiya were both in attendance at the Fifty-Sixth Series of Meetings of the Assemblies of the Member States of WIPO held from October 3-11 in Geneva in Switzerland.

Choi stated in his opening address that artificial intelligence and big data, which represent the fourth industrial revolution, will be key issues in advancing the IP system, according to a KIPO press release. Choi and Komiya also held a bilateral meeting and Choi went on to sign a memorandum of understanding on a patent prosecution highway (PPH) with the Polish Patent Office.

Komiya held meetings with the IP heads of over 20 countries, according to a JPO press release, reinforcing mutual cooperation between them. In addition Komiya signed a patent prosecution highway agreement with Argentina to commence in April 2017, on a trial basis. The JPO also agreed to increase patent data exchange with Germany, as well as concluding a memorandum of cooperation for facilitating patent grant with Laos, to enable rights holders who already hold a Japanese patent to be granted corresponding patents in Laos and Cambodia under a fast-track scheme.

The JPO also agreed to strengthen IP ties with Chile and Turkey.

BRICS IP Heads Meet for Geneva Summit

The heads of the intellectual property offices of the five BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) met on October 4 for their seventh summit in Geneva, Switzerland, according to the media outlet of China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) China IP News.

In attendance were SIPO commissioner Dr. Shen Changyu, the head of the Indian Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks, Om Prakash Gupta, director general of the Russian Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks (ROSPATENT), commissioner of the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office of South Africa Rory Voller and president of Brazil’s National Institute of Industrial Property Luis Octavio Pimentel.

The five representatives agreed to continue an examiner exchange program between their respective offices, as well as to hosting IP symposiums for small and medium-sized businesses in the five BRICS countries. ROSPATENT declared a joint statement on behalf of its BRICS partners at the Fifty-Sixth Series of Meetings of the Assemblies of the Member States of WIPO in Geneva held from October 3-11, according to the media outlet.

Nichia Sues HTC for Infringement of White-Light LED Patent

Japanese LED maker Nichia Corporation filed a patent infringement lawsuit on October 18 with the Tokyo District Court against HTC Nippon Corporation, a Japanese affiliate of Taiwan’s HTC Corporation, and Kanematsu Communications Ltd., a distributor for HTC, seeking an injunction and compensation for damages.

Nichia has alleged in the lawsuit that the white LED used by the HTC Desire 626 infringes its JP5177317 and JP5610056 patents, which both relate to white-light LEDs using yttrium aluminium garnet (YAG) phosphors.

In related news, Nichia won an infringement lawsuit against two Japanese companies, Tachibana Eletech Co. and E&E Japan Co., that imported blue-light LEDs manufactured by Taiwanese LED maker Everlight at the Tokyo District Court on October 14. Everlight has since responded stating that the patent in dispute (JP2780618) expired on Nov. 6, 2013, and so the decision will not affect the firm’s current operations.

Cathay Financial Holdings Teams Up with Taiwan University to Launch ‘FinTech Scholarship’

Cathay Financial Holdings announced earlier in October that it has teamed up with National Taiwan University to launch a FinTech scholarship. Cathay signed a memorandum of understanding with the university's College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, becoming the first financial business to work with the college. Cathay stated that it is keen to take a role in the development of FinTech and that it hopes that the scheme will allow it to give back to young scholars as well as helping with the research and development of FinTech.

As part of the scheme, students from the college will undertake internships with Cathay. On the basis of the results of these internships the company will grant scholarships to certain students. The company will also fund and take part in a lecture series on FinTech held by the university to share their analysis derived from big data as well as providing students with an understanding of their clients’ needs.

The company has also pledged to fund the college’s research into FinTech as well as offering professors an opportunity to participate in company research and development.

NTU set up the FinTech and Blockchain Center on March 4, 2016, which takes the college as its Asia base, and has worked with US crytocurrency exchange Bitfinex to cultivate local talent. Cathay Financial Holdings has worked with several other local universities, including National Cheng Chi University and will hold the Mei-Chu Hackathon in collaboration with National Chiao Tung University and National Tsinghua University from October 29-30.

Facebook Follow the IP Observer on our FB Page