An Innovator for Industrial Transformation

R&D Innovation Management

R&D Innovation Strategy

Open R&D innovation and cultivating the HIWIN brand are the cornerstone of HIWIN’s sustainable development. We actively create a learning environment that enjoys innovation. By implementing three key strategies―“cultivating an innovative culture, strengthening open innovation, and implementing intellectual property management”―HIWIN empowers and motivates its employees to enhance their innovation capabilities. This, in turn, enables HIWIN to strengthen its two core competencies: “sustainable products and smart manufacturing.” HIWIN remains dedicated to developing environmentfriendly and high-value products to maintain its industry-leading position in the face of intense competition.

R&D Innovation Platform

Based on our innovation management and service mindset, HIWIN allocates 3.8%-5.8% of our annual revenue to fund R&D. We have consistently innovated our existing products to meet customer demands. In response to the energy conservation trend, we have applied our motion control technologies to achieve low energy consumption used by various industries, such as semiconductors, robots, green energy, consumer products, and the automotive industry to replace less efficient motion systems such as pneumatic and hydraulic systems. Additionally, HIWIN is actively establishing a strong presence in high-end applications, such as industrial/wafer robots, EFEM, strain wave gear, torque motor rotary tables, and intelligent linear motion products.

① Group R&D capabilities

Innovative R&D and the HIWIN brand are our core values. Since our founding, HIWIN has drawn up a long-term development blueprint to make HIWIN the leading brand in precision linear motion control and system technology products. HIWIN has R&D centers in Taiwan, Tokyo (Japan), Offenburg (Germany), and Israel, with over 500 R&D personnel. We are dedicated to global resource integration and technological innovation. The IP Department manages and maintains the Company’s IP systems, regularly reporting to the management team about IP management. Additionally, overseas R&D centers have quarterly international exchanges and product sharing with R&D personnel at HIWIN Headquarters.

After the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions were lifted in 2023, HIWIN GROUP’s R&D personnel worldwide engaged in cross-regional exchanges on innovative design, process technologies, smart technology, and environmental protection. These elements were incorporated into new product development and were improved over time. We also invited members across the organization to discuss new business models and market strategies. We aim to achieve economies of scale through global deployment and regional integration, expanding product portfolios and market footprint. Our goals are to satisfy the needs of more customers and build the Company’s sustainability capacity.

R&D personnel exchange of HIWIN GROUP

② Internal innovation process

HIWIN fosters an innovation culture to strengthen R&D capabilities in response to changes in smart manufacturing and the industry. To encourage internal innovation and develop competitive products, we apply Synchronization Engineering (SE) to accelerate the implementation of innovative ideas. This approach helps establish a product development process that aligns with our corporate culture and values, allowing inspiration to take shape and be aligned. The synchronization spans from experience transfer, patent arrangements, and target market during the design phase to production equipment, facilities, auxiliary engineering, logistics information synchronization, and collaborative synchronization during the later stages of R&D.

HIWIN focuses its R&D services on the voices of end customers and addresses customers pain in the product development process. Using big data analysis, HIWIN promptly rolls out new products, expands into new markets, and enhances the Company’s long-term competitiveness.

③ Most beneficial award

HIWIN promotes and motivates employees to implement innovative ideas in products, processes, and manufacturing through our internal innovation mechanism. This helps us establish a sustainable foundation for our organization’s competitiveness. We also believe in rewarding employees who propose innovative ideas by providing them with tangible benefits.

The HIWIN Most Beneficial Award categories include Proposals for Improvement, Processes, Automation, Products, AI & Big Data, Patents, and ESG. The Award encourages employees to actively generate innovative ideas and creativity before practically implementing them for company-wide optimization and innovation, establishing a virtuous cycle within the organization.

Establishment of Innovation Culture

① Strengthen open Innovation

HIWIN is committed to ongoing innovation in research and development, as well as leveraging the expertise of industry, government, and academia to strengthen Taiwan’s machinery industry. To this end, HIWIN has been providing resources to domestic and overseas universities and research institutes, fostering technological advancements and educational reforms in engineering through the integration of global resources and a commitment to continuous innovation. HIWIN understands the importance of long-term R&D and has promoted open innovation in multiple aspects in 2023.

• Industry-academia cooperation

Since 2005, HIWIN has initiated industry-academia collaboration programs, dedicating itself to long-term basic research and technology development at multiple universities.

In August 2023, HIWIN GROUP signed a collaboration agreement with the College of Industry-Academia Innovation at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology. The collaboration focuses on smart manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and sustainable energy. We planned a twelve-year partnership with an annual investment of US$325.7 thousand to broaden R&D avenues for faculty and students, inspire diverse, forwardlooking thinking and research, and expand the innovation landscape for tech talent in Taiwan.

The two parties collaborate on core themes such as knowledge exchange, technological innovation, and talent cultivation, establishing systematic dialogue and partnership mechanisms, bridging academic research with industrial development, sowing the seeds of innovation, and strengthening Taiwan’s competitiveness. This aligns with NTUST’s vision of “developing an international university of applied research featuring technological innovation and industrial applications.”

For our smart product, i4.0BS_®, we used HIWIN’s ballscrew big data. Also, we collaborated with a U.S. university team to create an AI predictive diagnostic tool for intelligent ballscews employing various algorithms, including deep learning and machine learning. The diagnostic tool can handle complex conditions and massive data simultaneously, significantly reducing AI learning time, quickly responding to market demands, and enhancing competitiveness.

• Joint R&D collaboration with external partners

In response to the international trends for ESG and energysaving, we gradually shift towards electric designs for our industrial brakes. As our critical European customers requested us to develop high-end electric actuators, we seized the opportunity, leveraging our expertise in flexible and innovative transmission machinery R&D, to collaborate with external partners in developing key components and pursuing a lightweight design with reduced volume.

• Seminars on the value chain

To enhance the capabilities of critical manufacturing processes, HIWIN actively collaborates with suppliers to boost momentum in the overall industry chain. For example, to address issues of high sourcing costs and long lead times for rotary joints, HIWIN partnered with suppliers to develop different rotary joint modules. After a series of tests, validations, and continuous design optimizations, we successfully introduced this technology into the factory in 2023. This technology enables us to respond to the customers’ special needs with great flexibility, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

② Innovation management

HIWIN encourages R&D activities by promoting a culture of open innovation. We also created a comprehensive review mechanism to evaluate product development and production risks. All R&D processes and outputs are controlled through the internal control document“Illustration on Failure Mode and Effects Analysis.”Innovation is the source of HIWIN’s competitiveness. We can minimize risks in the R&D process through effective management and supervision to ensure product quality.

IP Management

① IP management system

HIWIN is dedicated to integrating global resources and fostering continuous innovation. To safeguard the Company’s intellectual property (IP), the Executive Office has established a specialized IP Legal Section. Additionally, HIWIN has implemented the Taiwan Intellectual Property System (TIPS), which formulates IP management policies and objectives centered around patents, trade secrets, trademarks, and copyrights. Corresponding implementation methods have been established for relevant departments to adhere to, with the aim of preventing any infringement of others’ IP during product development or marketing. HIWIN actively encourages its colleagues to innovate and develop a comprehensive IP portfolio, thereby upholding the Company’s brand image. Furthermore, effective communication channels have been established to facilitate ongoing enhancements to the IP management system.

② Patent management

Since its establishment, HIWIN has prioritized the development of its patent portfolio to safeguard the company’s significant R&D accomplishments. Before introducing new products, HIWIN implements a rigorous review system to evaluate the patentability and infringement risks associated with its products. The IP Legal Section conducts patent searches to enhance the quality of the patents. HIWIN encourages its employees to innovate in R&D and uphold its business philosophy of “Continuous Innovation” through a comprehensive approach that includes five stages of patent education and training for R&D personnel, a patent rewarding system, and a a most beneficial patent competition.

The five stages of patent education and training are specifically designed for new R&D personnel and cover topics such as introdution of patent specification and patentability, patent searches in different countries, drafting of patent proposals, defense against patent rejections, and identification of patent infringement. This systematic course arrangement enables the Company to cultivate the fundamental patent knowledge of new R&D personnel, improve the quality of patent proposals, and mitigate the Company’s risk of infringement.

HIWIN has consistently received significant patent awards, as indicated in the table below, establishing itself as a technology leader in the industry. In response to the growing emphasis on ESG, HIWIN has developed numerous green patents focused on environmental protection and energy conservation. These patents encompass various technologies, including temperature detection, reduction in the use of parts and materials, noise reduction, oil leakage prevention, and improvement in lubrication effectiveness.

③ Trade secrets management

To maintain our Company’s competitive advantage in the industry and safeguard HIWIN’s process technologies, we have built upon our experience of implementing the Taiwan Intellectual Property Management System (TIPS) from 2014 to 2017. We have formulated relevant systems based on recommendations from a third-party verification agency and continuously improved our existing practices.

Currently, we have implemented a trade secret registration system within the relevant departments to ensure proper retention of our selfdeveloped technology know-how. The supervisor at the manager level of the registered unit serves as the manager for the trade secret. The IP Legal Section conducts audits on managers throughout the entire factory. Additionally, access to the area where the trade secret is located is strictly controlled. We have established a reporting and penalty mechanism to address any unauthorized personnel entering the controlled area.

Since 2018, we have expanded the system at not only HIWIN Headquarters in Taichung but also factories in Taichung, Yulin, and Chiayi. Every year, internal audits and management review meetings are conducted to ensure the effective implementation of our management system across all units, thereby preventing the leakage of confidential information, such as manufacturing processes.

Furthermore, the IP Legal Section provides legal courses to HIWIN’s managers annually and offers IP training to new employees. This training enhances employees’s legal and IP awareness, thereby maintaining our competitiveness in the industry.

④ Trademark management

HIWIN has successfully established a global presence with its renowned brand. With over 30 years of dedicated brand marketing, “HIWIN” has become the second largest brand in the global linear motion products industry.

HIWIN’s market share in China has been increasing yearly, and it has already become a well-established brand for linear motion products in China. The status has led illegitimate Chinese companies to produce and sell counterfeit HIWIN products, exploiting HIWIN’s brand visibility. To stop counterfeit products from recurring, which may damage HIWIN’s brand image, we registered the “HIWIN” trademark in China. Besides, we actively applied for multiple color combination trademarks (non-traditional trademarks) which have been granted for registration in China. The above trademarks can help us combat counterfeit manufacturers and prevent customers from purchasing low-quality counterfeit products.

Following rigorous crackdowns on counterfeit products in China and, thankfully, with strong support from Chinese law enforcement department in protecting the HIWIN brand image, we have uncovered 79 counterfeit manufacturing factories and 524 counterfeit sellers, along with the seizure of 520,509 counterfeit sliders and 12,078 counterfeit slider packages as of the end of December 2023. In order to prevent counterfeiting, HIWIN diligently pursues trademark infringement lawsuits against counterfeit manufacturers, ensuring the protection of customers’s rights and interests. HIWIN remains unwavering in its commitment to upholding the esteemed brand image of HIWIN and defending its exceptional quality.

Additionally, we discovered a counterfeit factory in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, that seriously infringed our brand, seizing approximately 300,000 counterfeit blocks. This case marked the first criminal prosecution based on a color combination trademark. The two main defendants were sentenced to five years and three years in prison, respectively, while in the civil lawsuit, the defendants were ordered to compensate HIWIN RMB$ 2 million. This case can deter counterfeit manufacturers and demonstrates our determination to uphold the HIWIN brand image.

⑤ Copyright management

HIWIN’s IP Legal Section reviews all works before publication to check for potential infringements. Important works are registered with relevant authorization departments for copyright protection, documenting the date of completion and the process of creation. In recent years, HIWIN has copyrighted HIWIN Ambassadors, product catalogs, software interfaces, and the Ecological Education Film “We Love Living Here” to add an additional layer of copyright protection to trademark protection and further protect our brand image.

To protect HIWIN’s copyrights and prevent the circulation of counterfeit products in the market, HIWIN has taken action against counterfeiters in the following ways: ① Several Taiwanese manufacturers published counterfeit HIWIN product catalogues on their websites. After receiving a warning letter, the counterfeiters removed the infringing links, paid damages, and issued an apology in newspapers. ② Infringement lawsuits were filed against two counterfeiters of HIWIN product catalogues in China. The initial courts ruled in favor of HIWIN, and the defendants were ordered to pay penalty for violation of HIWIN IP.

In addition, HIWIN has implemented an open-source software pre-use review mechanism to minimize the risk of violating open-source software licensing terms when using open-source code to assist in software development. This allows the Company to provide customer services with better efficiency and legitimacy, enhancing its long-term competitiveness.

In summary, HIWIN’s works are original. If illegitimate companies attempt to enhance the value of their products through counterfeiting, HIWIN will uphold the spirit of continuous innovation and actively take legal action against such behavior to protect the Company’s intellectual property and brand image.