Innovation Management

IP Innovation

Innovative R&D and brand marketing are HIWIN's core missions. Since our founding, HIWIN has drawn up a longterm development blueprint in the hopes of making HIWIN the world's leading brand in precision linear motion components and system technology products. HIWIN has R&D centers and labs in Taiwan, Tokyo (Japan), Offenburg (Germany), Moscow (Russia), and Israel as well as over 500 R&D personnel. We are dedicated to global resource integration and technological innovation. The IP Department manages and maintains HIWIN's IP systems, regularly reporting to the Company's management team about IP management.

Patent Management System

Since our founding, HIWIN has produced many important R&D results and patents each year. The Company has an incentive system to reward innovative proposals and a rigorous internal patent review system to encourage employees to innovate, research, and develop. As of the end of December 2021, HIWIN has filed a total of 3,312 patent applications and now has 2,697 patents globally (Note 1). In the year 2021 alone, HIWIN filed a total of 173 patent applications. The company has been ranked in the Top 100 Patent Applicants and Assignees by TIPO for many consecutive years (Note 2), which is a testimony to HIWIN's pursuit of perfection in product quality.

In addition, in response to smart manufacturing demands posed by Industry 4.0 in recent years, HIWIN started applying for patents related to smart technologies in 2005. Largely applied to ballscrews and linear guideways, the technologies include temperature tests, lubrication tests, wear tests, preload tests, etc. Analysis of patent applications from major industrial countries such as Taiwan, China, the U.S., Japan, Germany, and the EU shows that HIWIN leads peers in patent applications, indicating that HIWIN maintains a leading position in patents in intelligent linear motion products.

2017~2021 HIWIN's Rank in the Top 100 Patent Applicants and Assignees by TIPO

Rank \ Year	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Rank in Cumulative Patent Announcements	42	47	49	41	88

Major Patent Awards

Year	Awards
2002-2021	20 consecutive years on the Top 100 Patent Applicants and Assignees by TIPO
1993~2022	33 HIWIN products have been awarded Gold and Silver by the Taiwan Excellence Award

Trade Secrets Management System

To maintain the Company's competitive edge in the industry and protect HIWIN's process technologies, we have drawn up a comprehensive Trade Secrets Management system and developed a Trade Secrets Registration System to prevent the leak of confidential process information. HIWIN rolled out the Taiwan Intellectual Property Management System (TIPS) between 2014 and 2017. The Company also commissioned a neutral third-party verification agency to identify and eliminate blind spots in our IP Management System to help HIWIN develop a more robust system. We have been able to build up a foundation for trade secret management throughout the four-year rollout. Since 2018, HIWIN has continued to strengthen the IP Management System, which has been rolled out to the Taichung HQ as well as factories in Taichung, Yunlin, and Chiayi. Regular employee training, internal audits, and management review meetings are held to ensure an effective management system is faithfully carried out across all units.

In addition, the IP Legal Department regularly offers legal courses to HIWIN's managers and IP training to new employees. The training can raise employees'legal and IP awareness, which helps bolster the protection of confidential company information and maintains our competitiveness in the industry.

Global Trademark & Protection

HIWIN has successfully gained a global presence with the HIWIN brand. As such, trademark registrations for "HIWIN" around the world play an important role in IP protection. After years of trademarking efforts, "HIWIN" has been trademarked in 84 countries with a pending status in 4 more countries as of the end of December 2021. After 30 years of marketing, "HIWIN" has become the second largest name in linear motion products around the world.

Many illegitimate Chinese companies have attempted to take advantage of the "HIWIN" name to produce and sell counterfeit linear guideway blocks. The counterfeit blocks are produced using our exclusive red/green/black trademark and red/green packaging trademark, which infringes HIWIN's trademark rights. The illegitimate companies sell unqualified products and even export them to countries in Eastern Europe for illegal profits. These unlawful practices have seriously impacted the image of the HIWIN brand. To protect HIWIN's intellectual property rights and protect customers from low-quality counterfeits, HIWIN has been cracking down on counterfeit HIWIN products in China. As of December 2021, HIWIN has uncovered 63 counterfeit manufacturers and 363 counterfeit sellers, seizing a total of 11,923 counterfeit block packages. In the following years, we will continue to file lawsuits against major counterfeit manufacturers to prevent future counterfeiting. HIWIN remains resolute in defending customer interests and HIWIN's image.

"HIWIN Fights Counterfeit: Zero Tolerance!" is a section on the Company's official website to combat counterfeit products.

The image shows customers how to identify counterfeit products. To identify authentic HIWIN products: Please confirm if the "HIWIN" trademark is available as per the image shown (an example of a red, green, and gray block is shown in the image. The block is in gray and black). If your product does not have the "HIWIN" trademark that we have outlined in the blue box below, the product you have purchased may be a counterfeit.( Source:https://www.hiwin.tw/fight_counterfeit/)

Copyright Management and Protection

Before they are announced, all products are reviewed by HIWIN's IP legal team to check for potential infringements. Important products will also be registered for copyright protection to document the date of completion and the development process. In recent years, HIWIN has copyrighted HIWIN Ambassadors, product catalogs, and software interfaces to give an added layer of copyright protection on top of trademark protection and further protect our brand image.