專利技術之競爭與趨勢分析──以薄膜電晶體液晶顯示器為例

Abstract

智慧財產權的普遍覺醒，使得專利成了保護智慧財產權的最佳利器。而專 利文獻並非只是一份說明書而已，它更包含了技術資訊與權利資訊，是企 業求生存與政府提升技術水準所必備的資訊。專利分析日本人稱為專利地 圖，是利用專利文獻及依據所需之目的與範圍，得到企業所需求的資訊， 例如：技術趨勢、權利範圍、競爭者分析以及值得開發的技術等。本文以 薄膜電晶體液晶顯示器來驗證專利分析中技術演變趨勢與競爭者分析，得 到的結果與目前世界上此一領域的發展趨勢相當吻合。研究結果顯示目前 投入的國家有日本、美國、法國、台灣、英國、韓國及西德等七個國家， 其中以美國及日本為最強。而廠商分析中知道日本的Sharp 公司由1982年 起在美國申請薄膜電晶體液晶顯示器的專利至今，專利件數排行世界第一 位，而美國公司中僅剩XEROX 與GE仍在此一領域發展，其他公司均已消失 。由資料顯示，近三年來投資的廠商所申請的專利件數幾乎與 1989年以 前的總件數相同，可知道技術的發展程度非常的快速。台灣與韓國是這三 年中新加入的國家。由發明人的資料分析可以得到人才的資訊與公司的研 發動向。薄膜電晶體液晶顯示器由1986年起受到世界所有廠商的重視，因 此專利件數大量增加，且投入的公司也大量的增加，在在顯示出此技術的 生命週期是處於成長期的階段。而由專利中技術的演變，可以了解目前世 界對此一技術的研究方向。上述的結果均在本文中所用的長條圖、比例圖 、分布圖及消長圖等圖形中顯示出來。 Patent literatures are of dual characteristics as technical and legal documents. Patent analysis, also named patent map in Japan, is a pratical and reliable tool to unveil the treasures embedded in the patent data. Technology trend, competitor analysis and legal rights analysis are typical of the patent analysis. TFT LCD patents are used to analyze the technology trend and competition in this study. Evolution, both of TFT and TFT LCD, are presented to illustrate the trend and emerging fields of partinent technologies. Competitive analysis among various countries and firms shows that Japan has dominated over USA as the primary inventors in the last few years; Taiwan and South Korea ranks in the third and fourth places, respectively, in terms of patent counts. Twelve firms as major patent owners are listed and further analysis of firms, such as SHARP, XEROX, etc. are conducted. Inventors of pertinent patents are discussed as well. It also demonstrates that the development of TFT LCD is its growth period of technology life cycle. Patent analysis is an indispensible tool for the technology development in enterprises and research-associated organizations. More attention ought to be paid to learn and to improve the methodology in order to upgrade the national industry and technology. It is hoped that the study may serve as a milestone to bring togetherall the producer, officer and academy for maximizing the use of patent information.