Semiconductors, the chip war between the US and China goes through patents. Reports
In 2022, China produced 55% of semiconductor-related patents globally, surpassing the US for the first time. But the company with the most requests remains Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited
Tell me how many patents a nation registers and I'll tell you how it's doing economically. Because, just like companies, countries too get the amount invested in research and development with interest. The cyber and technological war between the USA and China in the last period has turned into a real chip war (which passes through Taiwan, the main producer as well as a de facto territory disputed by the two superpowers) with Biden who, in order to win it, has decided to put on the plate 52 billion that form the backbone of the Chips and Science Act . But who is winning this trade conflict? It's hard to say, however some indications can come from patents: whoever makes the most of them in the field of semiconductors could have the advantage of power…
PATENTS, SEMICONDUCTOR AND NOT ONLY, CLASH BETWEEN USA AND CHINA
Of course, talking about patents and registered trademarks when talking about China inevitably makes you smile. Beijing has in fact become today's superpower by copying as much as it can in every sector, from fashion to automotive.
In the technological field, Washington has repeatedly accused the Dragon of having favored and planned theft of American technologies and intellectual property: tensions over patents were the basis of the bannum of Huawei by the White House during the past administration of the White House, that of Donald Trump.
So far, the United States has been the largest "patent developer" on a global scale, especially in the technological field, outclassing both European and Asian powers, such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and, indeed, China. But, according to a report by Mathys & Square , things are slowly changing.
According to the analysts who wrote the study, “global powers such as the United States, China and the EU are competing to be leaders in semiconductor technology. This says a lot about their importance for the future of the economy”. In 2022 alone, therefore, as many as 69,190 "tech" patents were filed worldwide: just five years ago, in 2018, the total number was slightly over 43,000. The run-up in this area is evident.
Again according to the Mathys & Square study, around 55% of the patents produced on a global scale last year (i.e. just under 38,000) would be of Chinese origin, while only 18,223 would be of American origin, for an amount equal to 26% of the total.
TAIWAN STILL HAS THE NUMBER 1 COMPANY
In parallel, the report confirms that the company that has filed the most patents is the Taiwanese TSMC, with a total of 4,739 filings, equal to 7% of all intellectual properties filed in 2022 in the tech sector. On the other hand, the English sector of research and development was disappointing, which produced a total of only 179 patents.
HOW TO READ THE DATA
However, the Chinese data must be read bearing in mind that the contents of the patents vary greatly from country to country and from company to company. The Chinese chip manufacturing sector can actually afford to draw on Western technologies, for example by means of reverse-engineering processes for its own national patents.
However, this shouldn't even lead Westerners to rest on their laurels: the numbers photograph a disruptive change in progress, also because semiconductors will be everywhere in the 5G society we are imagining, with more and more connected devices capable of talking to each other.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/semiconduttori-la-guerra-dei-chip-tra-usa-e-cina-passa-dai-brevetti-report/ on Sun, 19 Mar 2023 06:29:31 +0000.