HSINCHU, Taiwan, December 30, 2022 - United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE: UMC; TWSE: 2303) (“UMC”), a leading global semiconductor foundry, today announced that it has achieved Taiwan Intellectual Property Management System (TIPS) certification for the second year, issued by the Industrial Development Bureau of Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs. This year, UMC’s certification level improved from A to AA, reflecting the Company’s commitment to higher standards of trade secret protection and patent management. By adopting the TIPS framework, UMC is ensuring that a robust system is in place to manage and optimize intellectual property (IP) resources, bridging its patent and trade secret dual protection mechanism with the Company’s business strategy, and further enhancing corporate governance and competitiveness.

Lucas Chang, UMC’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel, said: “IP protection is a cornerstone for competitiveness of enterprises. At UMC, we strive to protect our IP assets and those developed jointly with our partners through a robust IP management system that is aligned with the Company’s broader business strategy. More effective IP management will help UMC bolster our competitive advantages in core technology areas while also reducing the risk of infringement by UMC and third parties.”

UMC’s IP management strategy encompasses three dimensions: protecting IP rights of Company, aligning Company’s IP rights with core technology focuses to strengthen competitiveness, and optimizing the value of IP assets. When facing intense competition in the semiconductor industry, UMC strives to maintain its leading edge by continuous enhancement of its technical capabilities as well as a robust IP portfolio aligned with business goals. Over the past five years, UMC has spent approximately 7.8 percent of annual revenue, on average, on research and development. Accumulating over 14,700 patents worldwide to date, the Company has significantly increased the number and quality of patent applications for key specialty process technologies, including Magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM), Resistive RAM (RRAM), RF Silicon on Insulator (RFSOI), and High Voltage (HV)/embedded High-Voltage (eHV). In 2022, UMC introduced a trade secret protection system to protect its technology innovations. In addition, UMC continuously reinforces its employees’ awareness of legal compliance through effective companywide training.

About UMC

UMC (NYSE: UMC, TWSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor foundry company. The company provides high quality IC fabrication services, focusing on logic and various specialty technologies to serve all major sectors of the electronics industry. UMC’s comprehensive IC processing technologies and manufacturing solutions include Logic/Mixed-Signal, embedded High-Voltage, embedded Non-Volatile-Memory, RFSOI and BCD etc. Most of UMC's 12-in & 8-in fabs with its core R&D are located in Taiwan, with additional ones throughout Asia. UMC has total 12 fabs in production with combined capacity over 800,000 wafers per month (8-in equivalent), and all of them are certified with IATF 16949 automotive quality standard. UMC is headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan, plus local offices in United States, Europe, China, Japan, Korea & Singapore, with worldwide total 20,000 employees. For more information, please visit: https://www.umc.com.

Note from UMC Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

Some of the statements in the foregoing announcement are forward-looking within the meaning of the U.S. Federal Securities laws, including statements about introduction of new services and technologies, future outsourcing, competition, wafer capacity, business relationships and market conditions. Investors are cautioned that actual events and results could differ materially from these statements as a result of a variety of factors, including conditions in the overall semiconductor market and economy; acceptance and demand for products from UMC; and technological and development risks. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in UMC’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. UMC does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable law.