Intellectual Property Rights Management Policy
Wistron places great importance on the management of intellectual capital. Through our intellectual property management policy, we strengthen R&D capabilities, drive the development of high value-added innovative products and technology services, and enhance manufacturing efficiency and quality. This approach enables us to build a forward-looking intellectual property portfolio that bolsters corporate competitiveness. Moving forward, we will continue to implement a consistent intellectual capital management plan that aligns with our strategic considerations and business objectives, ensuring timely creation, management, and utilization of intellectual property rights.
Wistron's principles regarding intellectual property rights management are as follows:
Patent Portfolio Management
Wistron is committed to building a strong and efficient global patent portfolio. Through a comprehensive patent strategy, we ensure that the company’s technological achievements are fully protected while safeguarding customer interests. Currently, Wistron holds more than 6,500 patents across multiple countries, leveraging this portfolio to enhance technological competitiveness and secure market advantages for our innovations.
In patent management, Wistron integrates corporate strategy with business development goals to actively promote inventive innovation and strategic patent deployment, ensuring maximum value creation. Our patent team works closely with R&D units through brainstorming sessions, big data patent analysis, and proposal review committee to identify high-quality ideas and generate targeted invention proposals. Additionally, the team applies over 300 audit standards to rigorously review patent specifications, ensuring every patent meets stringent quality requirements. The end-to-end process covers invention proposals, prior arts searches, claim scope design, drafting and translation, filing strategies, office action responses, and post-grant maintenance and management—comprehensively safeguarding long-term competitive advantages of our patent assets.
To strengthen patent expertise and employee knowledge, Wistron enhances internal training programs by offering courses such as “Patent Academy” and other specialized sessions. In 2025, more than 1,323 enrollments were recorded, with participants passing assessments and accumulating approximately 700 learning hours. This systematic learning framework is complemented by an invention reward program that incentivizes creativity through recognition and awards, motivating employees to innovate and further improve product and technology service quality and market competitiveness.
In terms of patent quantity and quality management, Wistron not only continues independent innovation and patent development but also engages in patent acquisition, investment, expiration cancellation, sales, and selective maintenance to optimize the portfolio. Using consistent evaluation standards, we monitor patent coverage, quality, and market value, and benchmark against competitors and industry leaders through third-party assessment indicators. These efforts further enhance patent competitiveness and maximize the commercial value of our portfolio.
Trademark Management
Trademarks are an important representation of Wistron's products and services. A robust trademark strategy can strengthen the Company's brand image and ensure the brand is invulnerable. Wistron currently holds trademark protection in 37 key countries globally, with trademark presence on all five continents.
A sustainable brand demonstrates a company's commitment sustainable operations. To efficiently manage trademarks, Wistron has established a dedicated trademark team. This team directly liaises with offices in different countries to oversee trademark affairs, controlling costs and ensuring access to firsthand trademark information globally. Wistron's current trademark management priorities include:
1. Apply for trademark registration systematically in accordance with Wistron's business development;
2. Conduct a trademark search before using the trademark publicly to avoid infringing on others' trademark rights;
3. Utilize the global trademark monitoring system to prevent counterfeit or unauthorized use of the company's trademarks;
4. Evaluate the current usage of trademarks and phase out those that do not provide economic benefits.
Thanks to our rigorous and systematic trademark management system, Wistron has not faced any trademark infringement lawsuits since its establishment. To further enhance this system, we officially adopted the "Intellectual Property Management Standards (TIPS)" in 2023.
Protection of Trade Secrets and Confidential Information
Trade secrets and confidential information are important intellectual assets for Wistron. We use various control mechanisms to ensure the protection of trade secrets and confidential information. Apart from maintaining our competitive advantage, these protected assets can drive innovation and ensure our customers' rights. No substantiated complaints concerning breaches of customer privacy and losses of customer data were received by the Company in 2025.
To protect Wistron and our customer’s confidential information, we obtained the information security management system international standard ISO/IEC 27001 certification and carried out management measures accordingly. We conduct social engineering drills to improve employee awareness of phishing emails. Meanwhile, we require confidential information and trade secret protection training for all new employees to ensure that employees fulfill our confidentiality commitments to our customers.
We have signed confidentiality agreements with our customers and related suppliers. Both parties are required to protect confidential information. In the past five years, we have signed an average of 400 to 700 confidentiality agreements every year. Customer information is handled by designated units to reduce the possibility of improper disclosure and leaks. We have also joined the Taiwan Association for Trade Secrets Protection to continue tracking changes to related laws and the industry.
Intellectual Property Rights Management
Since 2020, Wistron has implemented its Intellectual Property (IP) Management Policy. The key execution results for 2025, as reported to the Board of Directors on December 19, 2025, are as follows:
1.2025 IP Management Policy Implementation Highlights:
(1) Patent Management
Wistron adheres to the principle of enhancing technological quality and patent value, continuously optimizing and managing its global patent portfolio. Each year, we conduct comprehensive evaluations and strategic adjustments of existing patent assets, eliminating patents with outdated technologies or lower overall value through expiration cancellation, sale, or selective maintenance. At the same time, we actively revitalize patent assets and steadily increase participation in domestic and international patent programs, as well as the declaration of strategically valuable patent families. Through outstanding patent management and an innovation-driven system, Wistron maintains a competitive edge in patent quality and technological value. Our patent portfolio composite index has risen to a leading position among industry peers and continues to surpass numerous globally recognized enterprises. In 2025, Wistron was honored for the fourth consecutive year as one of Clarivate™’s Top 100 Global Innovators and was also recognized by LexisNexis® as one of Taiwan’s Top 10 Companies Driving Innovation. Additionally, Wistron earned the Gold Medal in the 2024 National Invention and Creation Award from Taiwan’s Intellectual Property Office and was ranked among the Top 100 Global 5G Standard-Essential Patent Holders by the renowned IP platform Patently.
(2) Trademark Management
Wistron implemented the "Taiwan Intellectual Property Rights Management Regulations (TIPS)" in 2023 and successfully passed verification, obtaining a three-year validity period from 2024 to 2026. The company has always valued its own intellectual property rights and respected the intellectual property rights of others. Therefore, before any trademark is officially used externally, it is always checked to ensure there is no risk of infringing on the trademark rights of others. Furthermore, the company uses a global trademark monitoring system to track information on the use and application of trademarks by others in various countries, preventing others from imitating the company's trademarks or free-riding. For expired trademarks, the company assesses the need for renewal based on actual business conditions and abandons trademarks that are not economically viable. From January 1, 2025 to November 30, 2025, the company filed 9 new trademark applications and abandoned 61 trademark applications. Additionally, the company did not discover any identical or similar trademarks registered by others this year, therefore no opposition cases were executed this year.
(3) Protection of Trade Secrets and Confidential Information
To protect the confidential information of Wistron and its clients, Wistron has obtained the international standard ISO/IEC 27001:2022 for its information security management system. It conducts internal audits and external third-party audits at least once a year to ensure the continuous effectiveness of its information security management mechanisms. Social engineering simulation exercises are conducted every six months to enhance employees' awareness of phishing emails. All new employees are required to complete training on the protection of confidential information and trade secrets to ensure that every employee adheres to confidentiality commitments when dealing with clients. Furthermore, cloud-based digital tools, such as the encryption mechanisms, identity verification, and authorization principles in Microsoft Office 365, are used to protect confidential corporate documents. Confidentiality agreements are signed with clients and related suppliers, requiring mutual protection of confidential information. Software audits are conducted regularly using Microsoft's SCCM software, and software licensing courses are mandatory for new employees.
2. Wistron’s intellectual property rights portfolio:
Patent: Wistron holds approximately 6,500 granted and active patents worldwide, covering a broader range of countries and forward-looking technology and product domains. Invention/utility patents account for more than 94% of the portfolio.
Trademark: Wistron has registered a total of 829 trademarks worldwide over the years, of which 230 have been abandoned. Currently, there are 599 valid registered trademarks and more than 80 opposition cases have been executed, with a success rate of over 87%.
To enhance Wistron's brand image and brand trust, the focus and goals of our management policies are as follows:
Intellectual Property Management Policy:
1. Improving the intellectual property management system continuously.
2. Strengthening confidential information management.
3. Strengthening employees' awareness of the intellectual property infringement.
Intellectual Property Management Target:
1. Revising the internal intellectual property regulations for “Trademark Management Operating Procedures” to response to the examination mechanism of Intellectual Property Office regarding trademark’s accelerating examination.
2. Revising the “Confidential Information Management Regulations” to adjust the "setting of confidentiality and storage periods" and "control measures for the transmission of confidential information".
3. Continuing to update the content of the internal website of “Intellectual Property Knowledge” every six months and adding case sharing to the said website.
If you have any questions or suggestions regarding Wistron's intellectual property policy, please contact Email: ESG@wistron.com
