Intellectual Property
Respecting and Protecting Intellectual Properties
Meanwhile, we take appropriate actions under the law to protect our patent rights, design rights, and trademarks from unauthorized use.
Policy on the Protection of Intellectual Property
- 1.Fujikura will acquire patent rights, design rights, and other intellectual property rights for inventions and other outcomes of R&D and strive to maintain and enhance the superiority of our business operations. Fujikura will also fully respect the intellectual property of others.
- 2.If a patent right, design right, trademark, or other intellectual property right of Fujikura is violated, Fujikura will respond with appropriate legal action including lawsuits against the violating party.
- 3.Fujikura encourages business divisions, R&D divisions, and IP divisions to work together across division lines to ensure that intellectual property strategy is closely connected to business issues. Specifically, we regularly convene meetings of the IP subcommittee, in which members from each division participate, to integrate intellectual property strategy with business strategy and clarify patent positions compared with other companies in each business field and share this information, and to reinforce Fujikura’s patent positions.
- 4.Fujikura will regularly implement IP training, including training by grade level, in order to raise awareness of the need to respect and protect intellectual property across the entire Fujikura Group. Fujikura also holds an IP research meeting every year to report on IP related issues and topics facing the company, where opportunities are also provided for special lectures and presentations by outside experts.
Intellectual Property Strategy
We shall actively protect the results obtained from research and development through acquisition of intellectual property rights to ensure the superiority of the business and to develop business while fully respecting the intellectual property rights of third parties We are acting as a basic policy on intellectual property. We pursued intellectual property activities as an integral part of the business strategy up to FY2020 under this basic strategy, and have focused on the following key issues.
Intellectual Property Strategy According to Business
- 1.Promotion of Rights Acquisition
- We are promoting the realization of the ideal application model of domestic and foreign patents. Specifically, we constantly recognize relative intellectual property (quality and quantity) with competitors, aiming to create rights with high exclusivity.
- 2.Building a Global Patent Network
- We will select the application country according to the business strategy and build a patent network for each country.
- 3.Ensure Superiority of Our Technology Through Strategic Patent Application
- We regularly hold "IP (Intellectual Property) Subcommittee" for each strategic business unit (SBU) to establish an intellectual property strategy based on the business strategy to connect business issues and IP management, The R&D department, the intellectual property department together promote the visibility and strengthening activities of patent positions of the Company, and we strive to maintain or enhance the superiority of our business.
Activities to Improve Brand Value
The Fujikura Group is working to enhance brand value. The brand logo is used by more than 70 manufacturing companies and sales companies in Japan and overseas, as well as by overseas agents to gain brand recognition overseas.
Fujikura completed the process of registering the logo as our trademark for all the countries and regions in which we operate by 2020. In 2020, the logo was registered in the Republic of Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, the Principality of Andorra, Ecuador, Ethiopia, the Republic of Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, the Republic of San Marino, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Brazil, and Malawi. We are using the registered trademark rights to monitor unauthorized use on e-commerce sites worldwide and delete inappropriate pages. Unauthorized and fraudulent use of the brand logo on the Internet are on the rise year by year. The Fujikura Group will continue to rigorously exercise our rights against those who infringe our intellectual property.
Trade Secret Management
Based on the regulations concerning management of trade secrets, the Company properly manages it. This is especially important when securing an invention as a trade secret without applying for a patent. We manage confidentiality according to the importance of the trade secret based on internal regulations. Highly important information that affects the business is managed as a trade secret so that relief under the Unfair Competition Prevention Act can be obtained.
Moreover, if another company independently develops and acquires a patent for technology managed as a trade secret, we also take action to obtain prior use rights so that we can continue to implement them.The Fujikura Group continued to provide consultation and information on trade secrets internally in FY2020. We also enriched the content on trade secrets as an educational opportunity for employees and worked to increase awareness among Group employees.
Acquisition and Management of Intellectual Property
Regarding acquisition, we thoroughly discuss with the inventor about the essence of the invention and the range of possibilities that can be acquired, and we apply for licensing after considering the invention’s business contribution. Even regarding intellectual property rights that we have acquired, we judge the necessity of maintaining these rights each year based on the business value of the rights, and working to keep the optimum IP portfolio for our business at all times.
In addition, we are doing various forms of management from application to extinguishment of rights with our proprietary intellectual property management system. We view the creation of high quality patent and other intellectual property rights as fundamental to intellectual property activities that contribute to our business. We work to strengthen these rights to ensure that they hold firm when exercising rights in line with the business strategy. In FY2020, Fujikura specified areas of technology to prioritize in strengthening rights, and established a structure for the Intellectual Property Division to systematically support formulation of an intellectual property strategy that is aligned with the business strategy.
Patent Ownership and Patents Pending
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The number of patents we hold has trended just under 3,000 patents over the past several years, and we held 2,840 patents in FY2020. |
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The number of patents held outside of Japan has trended at just under 2,000 patents over the past few years as we have globalized our business. In FY2020, we held 1,867 patents. The U.S. Europe, and China account for 80% of our patents. |
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The number of Fujikura patents pending has declined over the past several years to 308 in FY2020. While patents pending declined in Japan, patents pending outside of Japan increased. |
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The global application rate, which indicates the ratio of overseas patent applications based on domestic applications in each fiscal year, is trending around 40%. |
