Hon Hai No. 1 corporate winner of Taiwanese patents in 2004r

Taipei, Jan. 28, 2005 (CENS)--Hon Hai Precision Industry, currently Taiwan's largest manufacturing corporation by revenue, bagged the largest number of Taiwan's patents and delivered the biggest number of the island's patent applications last year, according to a government patent regulator.

The Intellectual Property Office of the Ministry of Economic Affairs pointed out that Hon Hai filed 1,521 patent applications last year, increasing 123 applications from 2003's number. In the meantime, the company won 1,433 patents from the office.

The government-backed research organization Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) submitted 724 applications, the second-largest number, and was approved with 750 patents.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world's No. 1 supplier of contract chips, delivered the third-largest number of applications with 505 cases last year.

The rest of the top 10 applicants were AU Optronics Corp., HANNspree Inc., BenQ Corp., Inventec Corp., Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) Inc., VIA Technologies Inc. and Inventec Appli@nce Corp., in order. The rest of the top 10 patent winners were TSMC, AU Optronics, BenQ, Inventec Appli@nce, VIA, MiTac International, Macronix International and Delta Electronics, in order.

Delivering 874 patent applications last year in Taiwan, Philips Electronics scored the largest number of patent applications among all foreign corporations in Taiwan. It was followed by Samsung (596 applications), Matsushita Electric (544 applications), Sony (543 applications) and Seiko Epson (487 applications).

Patent officials said their organization received 72,106 patent applications last year, increasing 6,363 cases from 2003's 65,742 cases. Of the 2004 applications, 43,038 cases were from local enterprises and the remainders from foreign enterprises.

They pointed out that HANNspree made the most significant progress among the top 10 applicants by leaping forward to the fifth spot last year, with its 441 applications, from 2002's 88th place. The company was founded in 2002.