Taiwan Green Energy Patent Trend Analysis in recent ten years
The Taiwan Intellectual Property Office releases a report referring to green energy patent application and the distribution of IPC of the green energy patents from 2005 to 2015. This report focuses on seven major green energy industries in Taiwan, such as solar photovoltaic, LED lighting, biofuels, energy information and communication technology(EICT), clean energy (geothermal, wind power, etc.), hydrogen and fuel cells, as well as lithium battery electric vehicles, moreover, it further carries out an analysis of technology development and patent portfolio.
According to the report, the publication of the invention patent application related to green energy amounted to 33,505 in recent ten years where the domestic and the foreign applications are 15,434(46%) and 18,071(54%) respectively. Although the total patent publications of Taiwan application is slightly less than foreign applications, Taiwan nonetheless takes the lead in the EICT, clean energy and lithium battery electric vehicles.
The following summarizes current situation and development of seven major green energy industries:
（1）Solar Photovoltaic
Top five patent applicants in Solar Photovoltaic are Taiwan(40%), Japan(31%), USA(15%), Europe(7.5%) and Korea(3.8%). The main IPC of patent applications in Taiwan is H01L-031/042, which represents the technology of PV modules or arrays of single PV cells.
（2）LED lighting
In the technology of LED lighting, the main applicants that have filed up to 70% are Taiwan and Japan, followed by USA, Korea and China. The LED lighting technology further includes ILED and OLED. ILED is a LED using inorganic material as light emitting main body; OLED is a LED using organic material as light emitting main body, LED package , LED heat dissipation, etc. The number of ILED application is higher than OLED, which shows that the ILED is the main subject in the patent portfolio. This is presumably due to the research development and production in early times.
（3）Biofuel
Top five patent applicants in Biofuel are Taiwan(37%), USA(22%), Europe(19%), Japan(14%) and China(4%). Specifically, the top three applicant entities are UOP LLC, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp and ITRI. Most patents in Biofuel are related to physical or chemical conversion technology, followed by waste processing technology and biological conversion.
（4）Energy Information and Communication Technology (EICT)
Top five patent applicants in EICT are Taiwan(62%), USA(15%), Japan(11%), Europe(3%) and China(2%). The main IPC of the patent applications are G01R and H02J, reflecting that R&D focuses on current measurement and monitoring, circuit device/system of electric power supply or distribution, and system for electric energy storage.
（5）Clean Energy
Although the number of patent applications related to clean energy in Taiwan is rather low, it still shows wind and ocean power are the major technology. Considering the fact that many countries place high value on the issues of environment protection and the greenhouse effect, it is worth to invest resources for developing related technology.
（6）Hydrogen and Fuel Cell
Top five applicants in hydrogen and fuel cell are Taiwan(44%), Japan(29%), USA(11%), Europe(8%) and Korea(5%). The main IPC of the patent applications is H01M-008, which represents fuel cell and manufacture thereof.
（7）Lithium Battery Electric Vehicles
Top five applicants are Taiwan(58.5%), Japan(17.3%), USA(15.7%), Europe(3.2%) and China(1.9%). The main IPC of the patent applications by Taiwan is H02J-007/00, which represents circuit arrangements for charging or depolarizing batteries for supplying loads from batteries, whereas the main IPC of the patent applications by Japan and USA is H02J-017/00, which represents systems for supplying or distributing electric power by electromagnetic waves.
In conclusion, this report not only presents the current patent application trend of green energy in Taiwan, but also can be used as a reference for domestic experts, scholars and investors to make decisions and policy.
TIPO