Taipei, Nov. 21, 2012 (CENS)--AU Optronics Corp. (AUO), a major maker of thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panel in Taiwan, recently won the Thomson Reuters Taiwan Innovation Awards 2012.
The Award is organized by the Intellectual Property & Science business of Thomson Reuters, the world`s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. Four metrics were used to assess the level of innovation of candidate companies, including size of patent portfolio, success rate, extent of globalization, and influence of innovation. AUO was selected as one of the top-five innovative companies in Taiwan.
"Thomson Reuters Taiwan Innovation Awards 2012" is held by Thomson Reuters for the first time to recognize the most innovative enterprises and academic institutions headquartered in Taiwan for their innovation in R&D. Five corporations and five academic organizations received this recognition, including AUO.
Bob Stembridge, expert patent analyst and manager, customer relations, Intellectual Property & Science business of Thomson Reuters, said: "Our research shows that AUO has a large portfolio of innovative inventions protected in global markets such as the U.S. and China as well as the Taiwan domestic market. According to our analysis, their innovation is influential in stimulating further technical development with over 40% of their portfolio being cited by later published patents."
The Award was assessed by the volume of new inventions from Taiwan organizations published between 2009 and 2011. The Derwent World Patents Index (DWPI) database was used to evaluate the candidate organizations by the number of new unique inventions, ratio of granted patents to all new inventions, number of new inventions with foreign (non-Taiwan) patents in the patent portfolio, and frequency of patent citations by other companies in their technological fields.
The AUO Technology Center operated by the panel maker is Taiwan`s largest R&D facility for optoelectronics, and currently houses more than 3,200 dedicated R&D engineers. As of the end of October 2012, AUO has applied for 17,700 patents and obtained 10,100 patents, which places it No. 1 among Taiwan`s flat panel industry.
