Macronix ranked No. 1 in patent strength in Taiwan's semiconductor industry, and 18th worldwide

HSINCHU, TAIWAN: Macronix International Co. Ltd announced the company ranked 18th worldwide and number one among Taiwan's semiconductor industry in overall patent strength, according to the latest evaluation report by The Patent Board.

The international rating again attests to Macronix's achievement in long-term development of leading-edge technologies and products following the company's winning of the Contribution Award of the 2011 National Invention and Creation Award from the Intellectual Property Office of Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs.

The Patent Board scorecard ranks 240 semiconductor companies worldwide and selected the top 50 firms, with only two Taiwan-based companies, Macronix and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ranked 23rd), making the list. Due to the high quality and breadth of the patents obtained by Macronix, the company's Technology Strength ranking -- which measures overall strength of the company's patent portfolio holdings with a combined measure of quality and quantity -- led all Taiwan's semiconductor manufacturers and entered the top 20 global ranking.

In addition, Macronix's ability to use science to build its patent portfolio made it 11th worldwide in the Science Strength category.

"While patents can be regarded as an indicator to measure enterprises' innovation in R&D, the protection of intellectual property rights such as results of innovation lies in the quality of patents," Macronix's chairman, Miin Wu commented. "Macronix has reserved 10-12 percent of its annual revenues for R&D investment in recent years, even during the global economic downturn. Macronix has especially focused its R&D on meeting market demands over the next 5-10 years, with a global lead in the number of patents about next-generation memory such as PCM (phase change memory)."

"Macronix's broad and quality products have shown the application and high value of its patents," said Dr. C. Y. Lu, president of Macronix. "Macronix has cumulatively filed more than 6,700 patents globally and has secured over 4,300 granted patents. The company has obtained a patent nearly every working day in recent years, with 65 percent of patents being international," Dr. Lu added.

"Macronix was among the top 300 organizations granted US patents for eight consecutive years from 2002. The Patent Board's report reaffirms the success of Macronix's foresight in strategy and quality/quantity in deployment of patents."

The Patent Board tracks more than 2,700 global high-tech companies for their patent strength and lists top performers in terms of patent quality, technological strength and breadth of impact based on 50 indicators.