PME et propriété intellectuelle: Cas de Taiwan

3.3 The Micro (Enterprise) Level

We will try to determine the level of use of different protections available to businesses. It is also important to focus on the violation rate and whether the legal system is effective enough to be able to punish any misuse of an intangible asset

3.3.1 Level of use of IPR protection instruments

The patents:

According to recent statistics published by IFI CLAIMS Patent Services^68(*) and TIPO, Taiwan has become the country who files the most patents per year with a total of 76,55% of certificates in 2008. It surpasses Japan (11,13%), the United States (4,96%) and Germany (1,27%). This is thanks to companies like Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., LDT, specialized in the semiconductor sector. The country is both the first level of patenting as utility models, inventions and design. (See Table of certificates issued by nationality in 2008)

In this international context, Taiwan is too the first country which uses Intellectual Property Rights: we can see that the patents applications represent 61,40%. It`s the first country behind Japan (15,16%) and United-States (11,20%). However, this time, inventions (23'868) is more important than utility models (23'195) and design (4'276). (See Table Patent Applications by nationality in 2008).

Concerning the Integrated Circuits Layout, we can see the important evolution between 1996 and 2008 (on the table «Statistics for IC Layout Applications and certificates issued»). IN 1996, the number of certificates was 40 and this number has fall to 37 in 2008. The applications was 243 in 1996 and today this number was fall to 37. In fact, the law has become harder over the years. See Table VI, VII and VIII: certificates issued by nationality in 2008, Patents Applications by nationality in 2008, and Statistics for IC Layout Applications and Certificates Issued.

The case of ITRI Patent Transaction:

The orientation towards applied research-oriented industrial ITRI is reflected by a large number of patents obtained and Taiwan (373, 0.88%), but the United States where the institute has achieved strong increased number of granted patents (229 in 2007, 286 in 2008 and 397 in 2009). We also note that the numbers of patents filed and obtained in Taiwan and the United States are very close. The new information technologies and telecommunications (ICT) dominate the portfolio of research center in Taiwan with 58% of patents granted in the United States. Followed by precision machinery and microsystems systems (MEMS) (19%) and materials and chemistry (8%). The sectors that Taiwan now wants to develop the technologies for sustainable development, biomedical and nanotechnology, now account for respectively 7.5 and 2% of the overall portfolio^69(*). Finally, the ITRI has set up a platform^70(*) to relate to players wishing to acquire or dispose of patent rights, enabling the local industry to more easily observe intellectual property rights. These facts thus show that Taiwan and industry have now fully integrated mechanisms of innovation in their IP strategies.

* ⁶⁸ "IFI Posts 2009's Top-50 Patent Recipients" - IFI Claims Patents Services : http://www.ificlaims.com/IFI%202009%20patents%20011210%20final.htm, "ITRI received 397 U.S. patents last year" - China Post - 14 février 2010 : http://redirectix.bulletins-electroniques.com/mdsZs

* ⁶⁹ http://techweb.itri.org.tw/genchart/portfolio.asp

* ⁷⁰ http://www.patentauction.org.tw/index.aspx