Hon Hai Precision Industry Co garnered the most patent application and approval for 4 consecutive year last 2006. The top three were the same as 2005: Hon Hai with 1,830 applications, Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) with 873 and Inventec Electronics Corp with 819. For applications approved, Hon Hai had 898, ITRI had 583 and Inventec had 493. For foreign institutional organizations, Royal Philips Electronics NV topped in terms of patent applications and Sony with 401 patent approvals.