According to the latest patent and trademark statistics released by Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO), there were 72,442 patent applications and 79,300 trademark applications filed in 2016. The total number of patent filings in 2016 is still lower than those of the previous years, yet the total number of trademark applications in 2016 is the highest within recent years. We have summarized the relevant data in the following tables.
Table 1：Total number of patent applications from 2012 to 2016
| Year | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
|---|
| Invention | 51,189 | 49,218 | 46,379 | 44,415 | 43,836 |
| Utility Model | 25,637 | 25,025 | 23,488 | 21,404 | 20,161 |
| Design | 8,248 | 8,968 | 8,148 | 7,808 | 8,445 |
| Total | 85,074 | 83,211 | 78,015 | 73,627 | 72,442 |
Table 2：Patent applications filed by domestic and foreign applicants from 2014 to 2016
| Year | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
|---|
| Applicant | Domestic Applicant | Foreign Applicant | Domestic Applicant | Foreign Applicant | Domestic Applicant | Foreign Applicant |
| Invention | 19,054 | 27,324 | 17,262 | 27,153 | 16,866 | 26,970 |
| Utility Model | 22,135 | 1,353 | 20,132 | 1,272 | 18,998 | 1,163 |
| Design | 4,679 | 3,469 | 4,450 | 3,358 | 4,579 | 3,866 |
| Total | 45,868 | 32,146 | 1,844 | 31,783 | 40,443 | 31,999 |
Table 3：Patent applications filed by foreign counterparts in 2016 as compared to 2015
| Year | 2015 | 2016 |
|---|
| Types of Patent | Invention | Utility Model | Design | Invention | Utility Model | Design |
| Japan | 12,284 | 121 | 1,090 | 12,006 | 85 | 1,258 |
| United States | 7,184 | 173 | 715 | 7,081 | 222 | 669 |
| China | 1,332 | 523 | 164 | 1,484 | 551 | 167 |
| Korea | 1,614 | 25 | 153 | 1,719 | 20 | 161 |
| Germany | 1,232 | 24 | 285 | 1,300 | 18 | 333 |
The above Table 1 shows positive growth trend for design filings in 2016 as compared to 2015 or 2014, albeit the patent filings for invention and utility model have been continuously decreased during these years. Table 2 shows patent filings of domestic and foreign applicants in which 60% of invention applications were filed by foreign applicants, and more than 90% of utility model applications were filed by domestic applicants, while design applications filed by domestic applicants were slightly higher than those filed by foreign applicants at the ratio of 55% to 45%. Table 3 shows the major foreign counterparts who filed patent applications in Taiwan, in which the patent filings by applicants from US and Japan in 2016 are decreased by 1% as compared to 2015, yet for applicants from China, Korea and Germany, their patent filings in 2016 are increased by 9%, 6% and 7%, respectively.
Table 4：Total number of trademark applications from 2012 to 2016
| Year | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
|---|
| Domestic Applicant | 55,696 | 55,338 | 56,217 | 57,356 | 57,548 |
| Foreign Applicant | 18,661 | 18,693 | 19,716 | 21,167 | 21,752 |
| Total | 74,357 | 74,031 | 75,933 | 78,523 | 79,300 |
Table 5：Trademark applications filed by foreign counterparts in 2016 as compared to 2015
| Year | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
|---|
| United States | 3,799 | 3,835 | 3,735 |
| Japan | 3,452 | 3,484 | 3,669 |
| China | 3,263 | 3,919 | 4,281 |
| Hong Kong | 1,231 | 1,358 | 1,541 |
| Korea | 975 | 1,293 | 1,447 |
Table 4 shows the trademark filings from 2012 to 2016 in which despite a slight decrease in 2013 as compared to 2012, the following years from 2014 to 2016 have positive growth at 2.56%, 3.4% and 1%, and though more than 70% of trademark applications were filed by domestic applicants these years, the applications from foreign applicants have steadily increased each year. Table 5 shows the major foreign counterparts who filed trademark applications in Taiwan, in which despite the trademark filings by applicants from US in 2016 are decreased by 2% as compared to 2015, for applicants from Japan, China, Hong Kong and Korea, their trademark filings in 2016 are increased by 5.3%, 8.45%, 13.5% and 11.9%, respectively, especially the applicants from China are now the top foreign counterpart in trademark filings of Taiwan.
