Taiwan Intellectual Property Office has released the statistics of patent and trademark applications for the year of 2018. The total number of patent applications is 73,421. Among the three patent types, invention patent filings increased 2.83%, utility model filings decreased 8.38% and design filings decreased slightly by 0.46%. The total number of trademark applications is 84,816 with an increase of 1.2%, maintaining the steady growth from previous years. Statistical data of patent and trademark filings are summarized in the following tables.
Table 1：Number of filings according to patent types
| Year | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Invention | 46,379 | 44,415 | 43,836 | 46,122 | 47,429 |
| Utility Model | 23,488 | 21,404 | 20,161 | 19,549 | 17,910 |
| Design | 8,148 | 7,808 | 8,445 | 8,120 | 8,082 |
| Total | 78,015 | 73,627 | 72,442 | 73,791 | 73,421 |
Table 2：Comparison of number of filings between domestic and foreign applicants
| Year | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Applicant | Domestic | Foreign | Domestic | Foreign | Domestic | Foreign |
| Invention | 16,866 | 26,970 | 18,199 | 27,923 | 18,365 | 29,064 |
| Utility Model | 18,998 | 1,163 | 18,343 | 1,206 | 16,661 | 1,249 |
| Design | 4,579 | 3,866 | 4,293 | 3,827 | 4,252 | 3,830 |
| Total | 40,443 | 31,999 | 40,835 | 32,956 | 39,278 | 34,143 |
| Percentage | 55.83% | 44.17% | 55.33% | 44.67% | 53.49% | 46.51% |
Table 3：Patent filings by five major foreign counterparts
| Year | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patent Type | Invention | Utility Model | Design | Invention | Utility Model | Design | Invention | Utility Model | Design |
| Japan | 12,006 | 85 | 1,258 | 12,497 | 92 | 1,261 | 12,871 | 74 | 1,224 |
| United States | 7,081 | 222 | 669 | 6,408 | 201 | 703 | 6,393 | 175 | 777 |
| China | 1,484 | 551 | 167 | 1,888 | 519 | 267 | 2,595 | 615 | 296 |
| Korea | 1,719 | 20 | 161 | 1,864 | 23 | 152 | 1,766 | 12 | 118 |
| Germany | 1,300 | 18 | 333 | 1,152 | 23 | 286 | 1,197 | 9 | 305 |
Table 4：Trademark filings from 2014 to 2018
| Year | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Domestic Applicant （Percentage） | 56,217 (74.03%） | 57,356 (73.05%） | 57,548 （72.56%） | 61,215 （74.05%） | 59,840 （70.55%） |
| Foreign Applicant （Percentage） | 19,716 （25.97%） | 21,167 （26.95%） | 21,752 （27.44%） | 22,587 （26.95%） | 24,976 （29.45%） |
| Total | 75,933 | 78,523 | 79,300 | 83,802 | 84,816 |
Table 5：Trademark filings by five major foreign counterparts
| Year | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
|---|---|---|---|
| China | 4,281 | 4,830 | 5,770 |
| Japan | 3,669 | 3,892 | 4,728 |
| United States | 3,735 | 3,684 | 4,187 |
| Hong Kong | 1,541 | 1,579 | 1,649 |
| Korea | 1,447 | 1,521 | 1,440 |
There are only minor changes for Taiwan patent and trademark filing numbers in 2018. However, it can still be seen from the above tables that utility model filings and trademark filings in 2018 for domestic applicants have declined from the previous year. In terms of innovative technology, the invention patent filings slightly decreased for applicants from United States and Korea, but increased by 2%, 37.44% and 3.9% for applicants from Japan, China and Germany, respectively. Invention patent filings also increased about 1% for domestic applicants.
