Lately, Tsinghua Unigroup and MediaTek both hoped that Taiwan will lift the ban on Chinese investment on IC design in Taiwan. In response to the two companies, John Deng said that the ministry will examine and scrutinize each industry’s need, and will do an overall consideration of the matter at last.

In addition, the office said that Hon Hai, which assembles iPhones and iPads for Apple Inc., has been Taiwan’s largest invention patent applicant since 2004.

While the world’s largest contract electronics maker retained first place in the third-quarter rankings, the number of its invention patent applications filed with the government plummeted 56.84 percent from a year earlier to 82, a year-on-year drop for eight quarters in a row, based on the office’s data.

The office said the decline in Hon Hai’s applications reflects the company’s changes in strategy, because it is paying more attention to the quality of its patents than the quantity.

Moreover, the company has acquired a stake in Bamboo Distribution, a leading mobile phone recovery, recycling and distribution company in the United Kingdom.