Overview

Intellectual property management is an indispensable part of corporate governance and one of the key pillars of corporate sustainable development. How does UMC protect its intellectual property and leverage patents to enhance competitiveness?

Protection of intellectual property (IP) rights is critical for a company’s competitiveness, particularly in the semiconductor industry. In 2022, UMC obtained 348 patents, bringing our accumulated number of patents globally to over 14,700. In Taiwan, UMC ranks among the top companies in terms of the number of patent filings. To continue improving trade secret protection and patent management, our IP team continuously benchmarks our systems against best practices in IP management. In 2021, UMC obtained A-level certification for the Taiwan Intellectual Property Management System (TIPS). We achieved another milestone in 2022 by improving our TIPS certification to AA-level, demonstrating compliance with higher standards of trade secret protection and patent management.

UMC’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Lucas Chang stated that, in the face of rapid advancements in semiconductor technology and intense competition in our industry, UMC must diligently manage our patent portfolio and trade secrets, while continuing to enhance our technology capabilities. UMC boasts a strong legal team of patent engineers, external patent attorneys, and veteran intellectual property lawyers with backgrounds in diverse fields. Equipped with a range of expertise and experience, the team actively manages the two major types of intellectual property, namely patents and trade secrets. Technology development achievements and trade secrets are mutually complementary, and we ensure we are maximizing our resources and patents while also aggressively protecting our assets through a dual-track approach.

Promoting intellectual property management through the PDCA cycle
Intellectual property not only plays an important role in enhancing a company’s corporative competitiveness, but has also become an important aspect of governance. As early as 2014, the government included the provisions for managing intellectual property acquisition, protection, and utilization in the R&D cycle of the “Regulations Governing Establishment of Internal Control Systems by Public Companies.” In late 2019, intellectual property evaluation indicators were included in the “Corporate Governance Evaluation System” conducted by the Taiwan Stock Exchange. In 2020, intellectual property management regulations and board of directors’ responsibilities were included in the “Corporate Governance Best Practice Principles for TWSE/TPEx Listed Companies” (Corporate Governance Best Practice Principles). This indicates that intellectual property management has become an indispensable part of corporate sustainable development.

General Counsel Lucas Chang explains that UMC’s intellectual property management is guided by three core principles, namely strengthening the company’s competitive advantages, protecting technology assets, and optimizing intellectual property management. To protect patents and trade secrets, we employ the “Plan-Do-Check-Action” approach.

At the “Plan” stage, the intellectual property team follows the company’s business development and R&D plans to develop KPIs based on the number of personnel, technology, and innovation potential of each technical unit. At the “Do” stage, the team adopts an on-site service approach for exploring core technology innovations. In addition to organizing multiple patent promotion activities, the department also adopts a diverse incentive system to encourage colleagues to innovate. Moreover, for key and emerging technologies, the intellectual property team utilizes the concept of patent maps to seek opportunities for patent deployment with technical units and actively apply for patents with strategic value.

In the “Check” stage, the intellectual property team provides a monthly property report, which promptly reflects the current situation of the Company’s intellectual property portfolio and takes corresponding measures. In the “Action” stage, IP colleagues collaborate with the legal department to develop a comprehensive patent management system, including patent application strategies (such as global patent deployment and patent portfolio expansion) and patent management systems (patent classification, patent competition rewards, patent publicity and education, etc.), actively seeking the optimal balance between patent applications and trade secret protection.

Intellectual property management that emphasizes quality, quantity, and classification
In addition, to align with the Company’s business development and taking geopolitical factors into consideration, UMC adopts a strategy of emphasizing both quality and quantity in its intellectual property strategy. On the one hand, we actively carry out global patent deployment to maintain a leading position in the ranking of international patents, maintain global presence, enhance customer trust, and reinforce partnerships. On the other hand, we also continue to strengthen the expansion of key technology indicator patent families and the intellectual property strategic portfolio of key technologies, providing comprehensive and robust intellectual property protection for the company’s technology processes.

Under this strategy, our IP team classifies and manages patent cases, and applies them to invention proposal review, patent applications, patent family expansion, and patent evaluation. At each stage, corresponding systems are available for monitoring and management, and the intellectual property policies are flexibly adjusted. UMC continues to improve its patent management system, and the intellectual property department is responsible for supervising and controlling patent quality.

UMC’s R&D investment as a percentage of operating revenue over the past five years averaged 7.8%. UMC’s General Counsel Lucas Chang stated that through the improvement of intellectual property management, we can fulfill our commitment to protecting intellectual property rights. In one aspect, it highlights UMC’s emphasis on long-term partnerships and strives to achieve the best operational results. From another aspect, it also demonstrates our focus on sustainable development and not sacrificing long-term interests for short-term benefits, as protecting intellectual property is crucial to safeguarding UMC’s long-term interests.