Liberty Times Electronic News, November 8, 2025
[Report by Lin Ching-hua in Taipei] The Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) of the Ministry of Economic Affairs has released the patent application statistics for the third quarter of 2025. TSMC once again topped the list with 283 invention patent filings, securing the No. 1 position among domestic applicants for the 10th consecutive year and demonstrating its continued leadership in R&D. As for foreign applicants, U.S.-based Applied Materials, Inc. (AMAT) ranked first with 302 filings, marking its second consecutive year at the top; together with Japan’s Shin-Etsu Chemical, both companies set new single-quarter records, indicating that major semiconductor equipment and materials suppliers are continuing to increase their investment and deepen their presence in Taiwan.
According to statistics from TIPO, a total of 17,991 patent applications of the three patent types were filed in Taiwan, including 12,695 invention patents, 3,608 utility models, and 1,688 design patents, representing an overall 2% decrease compared with the same period last year; among them, invention patent applications saw a slight decline of 0.3%.
Among domestic invention patent applications, the top ten companies were TSMC with 283 filings, AUO with 91, Nanya Technology with 87, Inventec with 82, Delta Electronics with 78, Foxconn with 76, MediaTek with 70, Realtek with 69, UMC with 52, and Innolux with 44. According to the TIPO, TSMC has held the No. 1 position for ten consecutive years since the third quarter of 2016, reflecting the results of its long-term investment in R&D and patent portfolio development.
Among foreign applicants, AMAT of the United States ranked first with 302 filings, followed by Japan’s Tokyo Electron with 217, South Korea’s Samsung Electronics with 197, U.S.-based Qualcomm with 155, South Korea’s Hanwha with 152, Japan’s Kioxia with 130, Japan’s Shin-Etsu Chemical with 106, Japan’s Nitto Denko with 91, Japan’s Fujifilm with 88, and Japan’s Riso Kagaku with 64.
Among them, AMAT of the United States has ranked first for two consecutive years, and together with Japan’s Shin-Etsu Chemical set each company’s highest single-quarter record to date. TIPO noted that leading companies in the semiconductor equipment and materials sectors have been actively filing patents in Taiwan, reflecting their strong commitment to the Taiwanese market and their intention to deepen their strategic presence.
A further analysis of the top five countries filing foreign invention patent applications shows that Japan ranked first with 3,150 applications, followed by the United States with 1,825, China with 952, South Korea with 826, and Germany with 219. According to TIPO, applications from Japan, the United States, and China all increased, with the U.S. maintaining positive growth for the second consecutive year. This indicates Taiwan’s increasingly critical role in the global technology supply chain, attracting more international companies to establish their patent portfolios in Taiwan to strengthen both their technological and market advantages.
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