At the 1986 Brussels International Inventions Exposition, the delegation from the Republic of China captured three gold medals, thirteen silver medals, and twelve bronze medals, along with two special awards from the Belgian government, for a total of 76 percent of all the awards at the exhibition, leaving the other countries' delegates amazed and envious.

"What's up?" they all wanted to know. "Isn't the ROC known as 'the king of the counterfeiters'?"

At invention shows in the past, some countries used to try to block the ROC's delegates from taking pictures, for fear that a bunch of fakes would come out as soon as their new products were "exposed" in Taiwan.

In last two or three years, things have changed. Now the ROC's delegates receive a respectful welcome at other countries' booths.

Besides the ROC's internationally recognized anti-counterfeiting efforts, what has changed their attitude is the country's phenomenal success at inventions.

Inventions are an inexhaustible resource of intellectual property that, through the protection of the patent system, can be a powerful economic weapon in international trade.

In recent years, the ROC government has come to recognize the importance of the patent system and has revised the relevant statutes and regulations to encourage inventors. In addition, private groups such as the Taiwan. Taipei, and Kaohsiung inventors' associations have been assisting inventors in attending product shows, in developing their inventions, and in marketing.

Lin Chao-yuan, president of the Taiwan Inventors' Association, stresses the importance of attending international invention exhibitions: "Besides inventors, officials from big business, from research organizations, and from the governments of the advanced nations attend these shows to find out what's happening in each country technologically and to look for partners for cooperation."

The ROC had no idea of how it would do when it attended its first international invention exhibition, in Geneva in 1978.

"I had no confidence," Lin, who led the delegation, confesses. "All I could tell them was that attending was the point, not winning prizes."

Quite unexpectedly, the ROC delegation had eighteen of its 21 products selected for consideration and wound up with more awards than any other country.

Confidence restored, the ROC has actively attended all sorts of international invention shows since.

Although the nation has maintained a fine record at exhibitions over the years, the government and private organizations are still concerned over the domestic invention industry's course of development.

Statistics show that patent applications last year totaled some 500,000 in Japan, 110,000 in the U.S., and over 50,000 in Great Britain, while the ROC had more than 26,000, a figure quite respectable in terms of the nation's size.

"But the vast majority of patent applications here are from individuals--those from enterprises are pathetically few," points out Li Mao-t'ang, head of the ROC Department of Patents in the National Bureau of Standards. This is where the ROC differs from the U.S. and Japan, and it shows that local businesses fail to attach sufficient importance to research and development.

In fact, the strength of a company's R&D department is often an indication of the strength of the whole company. That some individual Japanese companies apply for more patents in a year than does the entire ROC demonstrates the importance that successful businesses place on patents.

"One-on-one" the ROC's inventors are the equal of anybody's, but in the absence of "business follow-up" and commercial development, many local inventions end up stillborn in the research phase.

"Our products will never advance to higher levels unless our businesses place more importance on inventions and start taking the initiative to recruit inventors," Li says, stressing that as labor costs rise resource-poor Taiwan must rely more on its brainpower to compete.

How to utilize this brainpower and promote the spirit of invention are thus the urgent tasks of the present. In this regard, the ROC can learn from others, particularly from Japan, which has two large organizations to collect and disseminate information on inventions and assist inventors.

Li insists that domestic enterprises must recognize the vital role research and development plays if they are to remain competitive on the world economic stage.

And he cites an example. The ROC's banana exports to Japan earn the country several tens of millions of NT dollars a year, but require the time and labor of tens of thousands of households. Meanwhile, one Japanese engineer comes to Taiwan with a briefcase holding a few blueprints of industrial technology and quickly earns those tens of millions of NT right back.

Which would we rather be, the banana farmers or the engineer?

This apparently simply structured goniometer has the ability to solve many particularly tricky problems of angular measurement.

Li Yuan-he single-handedly built his world-renowned "Nut Kingdom". His office wall is covered with award plaques and patent certificates from countries all over the world.

（Left） Li Yuan-he's fourth generation nut-manufacturing machine is a world record-setter, producing 1,000 nuts per minute.

（Right） The cleverness required for invention is exemplified in this "mechanically simple, operationally convenient" machine.