June 25, 2004
The United States Patent and Trademark Office granted a total of 6,676 patents to Taiwanese enterprises in 2003, making Taiwan once again fourth in the world for US patents.
The latest USPTO patent statistics for 2003 reveal that Taiwan's 6,676 patents place it fourth in the world behind the US, which posted 98,598 patents, Japan (37,250) and Germany (12,140).
Rounding out the top-ten were South Korea, France, Britain, Canada, Italy and Sweden. While the 2003 figures are roughly similar to those for 2002, South Korea managed to move up from seventh place to fifth by posting 4,132 patents in 2003. This figure allowed it to jump ahead of both France and Britain. However, though just one place behind fourth-ranked Taiwan, a gap of over 2,500 patents left it a far distance from taking the fourth place spot. China and Hongkong obtained 424 and 681 patents respectively. A breakdown of patents issued to US states shows that California received the greatest number at 22,079, and was followed by New York at 6,921 and Texas at 6,378.
A look at utility patents shows that Taiwan, with 5,298 such patents, also achieved fourth place in this category. The US took first place by obtaining 87,901 utility patents, while Japan and Germany received 35,517 and 11,444 respectively to claim the second and third positions.
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