UMC Achieves AAA Certification for Excellence in Intellectual Property Management and Protection

United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE: UMC; TWSE: 2303) (“UMC”), a leading global semiconductor foundry, today announced that it has achieved the highest AAA certification of Taiwan Intellectual Property Management System (TIPS) from the Industrial Development Administration of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Being the only company to receive the TIPS AAA certification in 2023, UMC has demonstrated its continuous efforts on managing and optimizing intellectual property (IP).

When facing the rapidly changing wafer foundry process technology and intense global competition, UMC strives to enhance its critical process technologies while also managing its IPs persistently. Olivia Liao, UMC Vice President and General Counsel, stated, “The core of IP management lies in establishing a comprehensive system and ensuring its effective implementation and results. In addition to setting clear objectives and establishing standardized and systematic processes, it is essential to link IP management with the company’s business strategy and growth, so as to maximize its beneficial outcomes. UMC strives to implement such strategy to protect the company’s long-term interests, maximize IP value, and contribute to corporate sustainability.”

UMC has been granted more than 15,000 patents globally, positioning it as the second highest among Taiwan companies in terms of the total number of US patents granted in the semiconductor field (H01L category). Moreover, UMC has an outstanding patent approval rate of 97%, reflecting the high quality of its patents. UMC owns various specialty technology patents that are challenging for competitors to duplicate. By introducing the TIPS certification mechanism, UMC continuously optimizes its IP management system and policies, combining the company’s operation strategy of focusing on the development of differentiated specialty technologies and actively enhancing global patent portfolios. UMC bridges patent and trade secret dual-protecting mechanism with the company’s business strategy to bolster competitive advantages, allowing the company to excel in the neck and neck technology race.

Besides possessing a significant number of high-quality patents, UMC further safeguards its global operations, enhances patent value, and protects its partners from the risk of infringement through diversified intellectual property management strategies. UMC’s commitment to protecting IP rights and valuing long-term partnerships is demonstrated through its robust IP management system, which aligns with the company’s philosophy of corporate sustainability.

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About UMC
UMC (NYSE: UMC, TWSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor foundry company. The company provides high quality IC fabrication services, focusing on logic and various specialty technologies to serve all major sectors of the electronics industry. UMC’s comprehensive IC processing technologies and manufacturing solutions include Logic/Mixed-Signal, embedded High-Voltage, embedded Non-Volatile-Memory, RFSOI and BCD etc. Most of UMC’s 12-in & 8-in fabs with its core R&D are located in Taiwan, with additional ones throughout Asia. UMC has total 12 fabs in production with combined capacity of more than 880,000 wafers per month (8-in equivalent), and all of them are certified with IATF 16949 automotive quality standard. UMC is headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan, plus local offices in United States, Europe, China, Japan, Korea & Singapore, with worldwide total 20,000 employees. For more information, please visit: http://www.umc.com.

Note from UMC Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
Some of the statements in the foregoing announcement are forward-looking within the meaning of the U.S. Federal Securities laws, including statements about introduction of new services and technologies, future outsourcing, competition, wafer capacity, business relationships and market conditions. Investors are cautioned that actual events and results could differ materially from these statements as a result of a variety of factors, including conditions in the overall semiconductor market and economy; acceptance and demand for products from UMC; and technological and development risks. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in UMC’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. UMC does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable law.