According to World Bank statistics from 2012, although Taiwan boasted a record ratio of 355.7 U.S. patents to every million Taiwanese, local firms generated only NTD 30 billion in revenue from intellectual property (including trademarks), while paying NTD 115 billion in licensing fees to foreign firms. The phenomenon indicates that Taiwan lacks a powerful patent system and that local businesses are struggling to increase market advantage from existing patents.

The development of 4G networks and its anticipated successor, 5G networks, has given Taiwanese companies an exceptional opportunity to break the existing technology-related patents.

Building the 4G long-term evolution (LTE) standard-essential patent databa
The National Applied Research Laboratories (NARLabs) launched an informational website on industry technology at http://iknow.stpi.narl.org.tw. The main purpose of this website is regarded as a central hub through companies can identify global patent trends, analyze major points of contention in patent litigation, and quickly access information on scientific and technological R&D in different domain and countries. 

Commissioned by the Intellectual Property Office, the Science and Technology Policy Research and Information Center (STPI) researched patent trends and litigation to establish the 4G LTE standard-essential patent databa

4G communications technology is still being developed
–Taiwan still has the opportunity to make its mark
As pointed out by STPI, 4G communications technology has not yet fully matured according to the technical specifications timeline established by ITU. This means that Taiwan still has the opportunity to make its mark in this domain.

At the end of 2013, Taiwan ranked seventh in the world and the number of 4G patents, just behind U.S., China, Korea, Japan, Finland, and Sweden. However, patents held by Taiwanese companies make up less than 2% of the patents compiled in the databa