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MAGAZINE, April 1999. VOL. 6 ISSUE
4
Isle of Inventors
By Mia Shanley
Taiwan -- land of manufacturers. King of the gadget world. A product
heaven and environmentalists nightmare.
This island -- in all its knick knack glory -- managed to rank
fourth among countries with the most US-registered patents, lining
up just behind Japan, Germany and France.
The latest numbers are proof that the Taiwanese are defeating the
age-old stereotype which deems Asians as being more in touch with
whichever side of the brain is the most uncreative, the most dull.
Innovation. Invention. Creation. The Taiwanese are much more in
tune with those words and deserve much more credit than they are
given.
Of coures, most Taiwanese inventions are primarily for "functional"
usages, but still, their inventions are often the missing link,
the missing part to a whole that works well, and probably makes
my world and your world "function" a whole lot easier.
Though a US patent does not stand for everything in the world of
inventions, it is a good place to start measuring. Because the US
is a major market for Taiwan and for most foreign inventors, getting
a formal patent with the US Patent and Trademark Office is a sure
way to secure protection of an idea. Hence, most foreign inventors,
particularly businesses with their sights on the US market, opt
for US trademark protection. Taiwan also follows this route, and
it is assumed by the numbers that there is more than enough support
out there for the innovative.
There is much potential in the numbers. In the past year, the Taiwanese
managed to ink 3,805 patents. Others behind Taiwan were Britain,
Canada, South Korea and Italy. China was nowhere on the top ten
list.
Products invented in 1998 are nothing heart-stopping -- unless
chemistry and physics up your blood pressure -- but if you read
between the lines and through the scientific equations, there are
some innovative products listed which are probably part of your
routine today. Some of the items will make you wonder about the
inventor and others, you'll wonder what you ever did without.
In 1998, products range from a gear-shifting sprocket set for a
bicycle to a hammer holder. But jump a few years back and the inventions
are even more varied. In 1986 was the invention of both an elephant-shaped
car cleaner and a toy railroad able to "switch toy traffic
direction." In 1984, someone patented a fully automatic single
push-button for an umbrella. A bit further back, someone worked
on a method of protecting multiplexed communications through encryption.
A year later was a rotary shuttle for a sewing machine. I've never
seen one, but apparently it was a Taiwanese who invented a combined
electronic clock and mirror in 1981. And in 1980, an automatic asparagus
peeling machine (the vegetable requires peeling?). Hitting the seventies,
it was a local inventor who created a TV chair with a double pillow-case
and 2-step ottoman -- the place where millions rest their feet today
at the pull of a lever.
It is a wonder where we'd be today without the 1976 invention of
the comb with a disposable teeth module or the 1977 invention of
an electric-powered adjustable mirror. And still others -- can openers,
a sand timer (think of board games without it), the multi-floor
elevating parking system and a tennis racket frame with multiple
cross-sectional shapes.
Expect something big from Taiwan as it enters the next millennium.
There is definite Wright brothers material lurking on this island.
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