Newsletter
LEADING TECHNOLOGICAL FIELDS IN 2007 INVENTION PATENTS
According to figures released by the Intellectual Property Office, the 20 leading technological fields represented in invention patents granted in Taiwan in 2007, and their corresponding IPC subclasses, were as follows:
| | Technological field | Corresponding IPC subclasses | 2005 | 2006 | Growth in 2006 | 2007 | Growth in 2007 |
| 1 | Instruments 1 (optical) | G01–G03 (except G01N33) | 2235 | 2750 | 11.8% | 3129 | 14.0% |
| 2 | Semiconductor devices | H01L | 3446 | 3504 | 15.0% | 2802 | 12.6% |
| 3 | Basic electronic circuitry; electric communication | H03, H04 | 2513 | 2651 | 11.4% | 1864 | 8.4% |
| 4 | Instruments 3 (semiconductor applications) | G09–G12 | 1532 | 1877 | 8.0% | 1731 | 7.8% |
| 5 | Data processing | G06F (except 17/60) | 1395 | 1594 | 6.8% | 1491 | 6.7% |
| 6 | Generation, transmission and conversion of electric power; electric heating | H02, H05 | 976 | 1130 | 4.8% | 1245 | 5.6% |
| 7 | Forming | B21–B32 (except B31) | 867 | 1016 | 4.4% | 1214 | 5.4% |
| 8 | Basic electrical and electromechanical elements | H01 (except H01L) | 1117 | 1466 | 6.3% | 1187 | 5.3% |
| 9 | Transportation | B60–B68 | 748 | 889 | 3.8% | 1072 | 4.8% |
| 10 | Instruments 2 (measurement) | G04–G08 (except G06F) | 415 | 553 | 2.4% | 572 | 2.6% |
| 11 | Healthcare and leisure | A61–A63 (except A61K, A61P) | 550 | 520 | 2.2% | 557 | 2.5% |
| 12 | Macromolecular compounds | C08 | 458 | 538 | 2.3% | 517 | 2.3% |
| 13 | Separation and mixing | B01–B09 | 340 | 367 | 1.6% | 441 | 2.0% |
| 14 | Organic chemistry | C07 (except C07K) | 478 | 432 | 1.9% | 428 | 1.9% |
| 15 | Dyestuffs, petroleum, animal and vegetable oils and fats | C09–C11 | 340 | 365 | 1.6% | 400 | 1.8% |
| 16 | Lighting, heating | F21–F28 | 228 | 353 | 1.5% | 359 | 1.6% |
| 17 | Metallurgy, surface treatment of metals, electroplating | C21–C23, C25 | 329 | 399 | 1.7% | 338 | 1.5% |
| 18 | Daily use items | A41–A47 | 342 | 387 | 1.7% | 337 | 1.5% |
| 19 | Inorganic chemistry, wastewater treatment | C01–C05, C30 | 376 | 377 | 1.6% | 324 | 1.5% |
| 20 | Pharmaceutical preparations | A61K (except 35/66–35/76, 38, 39, 47/42, 48, 49/14, 49/16, 51/08, 51/10) | 367 | 292 | 1.3% | 323 | 1.4% |
The top five technological fields—instruments (optical), semiconductor devices, basic electronic circuits and communications, instruments (semiconductor applications), and data processing—have all ranked among the first five since 2005. Of these, instruments (optical) moved from third place in 2005 to first place in 2007.