Premier Sean Chen on July 12 said strategic use of intellectual property is key to creating economic value at the present stage of Taiwan's industrial development.
After being briefed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) on efforts to promote commercialization of patents, the premier asked the MOEA to work swiftly with the Ministry of Culture, the Council of Agriculture (COA), the National Science Council (NSC) and the Ministry of Education (MOE) to draft the national intellectual property strategic guidelines. The guidelines, when implemented, will serve as a basis for creating and protecting intellectual property rights, as well as for resolving disputes.
At previous Cabinet meetings, Premier Chen has frequently underscored the importance of bringing patented inventions to market. While Taiwanese students have earned many accolades at international invention contests and have achieved a higher commercialization rate than students of other countries, Chen said, most participate in the competitions for the sake of improving their academic credentials.
Taiwan's research institutes, however, have a lower rate of commercializing research and development results compared with their foreign counterparts—an indication that their technologies may not be meeting the market's demands. The government must do more to narrow these gaps, said the premier.
Premier Chen also stressed that the innovation reflected in these patents comprise an important force driving Taiwan's economic growth. He asked the MOEA, NSC, COA and MOE to speed up and expand the use of their subordinate institutes' R&D results in accordance with recent amendments to the Fundamental Science and Technology Act. However, due to the different natures of academic and research institutes, difficulties may arise when evaluating their respective performances using commercialization success as a criterion. The premier thus asked the MOEA to consider other criteria that may be more appropriate.
According to the MOEA, the program to promote commercialization of patented innovations was approved by the Executive Yuan on September 9, 2010 with a budget of NT$11.8 billion (US$393 million) over six years. As of June this year, it had facilitated 1,232 expert consultations, 390 cases of strategic patent planning or product testing, and 1,278 instances of patented value-added services. It also enabled 2,990 companies to collaborate with universities, completed transfer and licensing of 2,480 patents, and created 20,103 job opportunities. Thus far, the program has attracted NT$7.78 billion (US$259 million) in private investment and generated a production value of NT$40.9 billion (US$1.36 billion).