Intellectual Property
Intellectual Property Strategy
Contributing to Business Through Intellectual Property
We engage in various activities to support implementation of the Hitachi High-Tech business strategy, such as protecting intellectual property (IP) created within the company by such means as patents, designs, trademarks, and so on, and devising measures to identify IP risks and avert them in advance. We are also taking on the challenge of activities to support the expansion of business and creation of new business through the analysis of IP information and other such resources.
As the digital transformation (DX) progresses, it has become necessary not only to be cognizant of the scope of intellectual property rights in patents, designs, trademarks, and so on, but also to pursue IP activities that extend to the data. For example, with customers who use our equipment, when data acquired from the equipment is to be analyzed by AI, it is necessary to take into consideration such matters as the extent to which Hitachi High-Tech can use the raw data, training data sets, models and parameters that have been learned, and so on.
In cases where the company makes use of external resources, such as with M&A and collaboration with other companies, we are investigating the IP status of the candidate under consideration in order to support the evaluation of the candidate and to address various problems related to IP that emerge with collaboration.
Initiatives
Securing and Respecting Intellectual Property Rights
We promote the formulation and implementation of IP activity plans in line with our business strategy. We are taking steps to secure IP both from the perspective of competition, meaning barriers to entry, constraints on competitors' efforts to follow after us, and the balance with our competitors in IP capabilities, and from the perspective of collaborative creation, meaning the creation of alliances and bonding with customers and partners. We envision patterns of IP use and consider what kind of intellectual property rights it is necessary to protect, and with what timing, in order to implement the PDCA (plan-do-check-act) cycle in our activities. We are also coordinating with business departments with respect to trademark strategies in order to increase the brand value of our products and services.
We seek to ensure that others respect our intellectual property rights while we also respect the intellectual property rights of others.
Measures for Services and Solutions
There is demand for solutions using physical and non-physical things. In the solutions business, collaboration with customers and partners is the key. It is vital to deal with IP provided to customers and partners and with IP created during the collaboration process. The handling of IP that cannot be fully protected by intellectual property rights alone, such as data and knowhow, is particularly important. Regarding that, we provide support from the intellectual property perspective for everything from non-disclosure agreements at the proof of concept (PoC) phase, to co-development agreements, and contracts at the commercialization phase, to ensure a win-win relationship with customers and partners.
Human Resource Development and Inventor Reward/Intellectual Property Rights Commendation System
The IP Division is a group of specialists with 10 in-house attorneys and two PhD holders (total figures as of April 2024). While taking steps to develop human resources capable of handling business globalization, we are aiming to build an organization that can make good use of the diverse experiences possessed by individuals.
In addition to implementing IP education for employees, we are taking steps to energize IP creation activities by employees by establishing an improved inventor incentive program and an intellectual property rights commendation system. We have arranged to review these systems as necessary in response to changes in the business environment and so on.
Reinforcing Overseas Intellectual Property Rights in Response to the Globalization of Business
The Hitachi High-Tech Group ratio of overseas revenues for FY2023 exceeded 70%. To respond to this globalization of our business, we are reinforcing patent applications and acquisition of rights in foreign countries. In FY2023, overseas patent applications made up 73% of our total applications. We are also providing support for IP activities by overseas group companies, such as assistance in formulating IP policies concerning development.
| FY | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patent Applications | 1,473 | 1,623 | 1,548 | 1,775 | 1,828 | |
| Domestic | 428 | 407 | 435 | 488 | 491 | |
| Overseas | 1,045 | 1,216 | 1,113 | 1,287 | 1,337 | |
| Patents Owned | 8,566 | 8,572 | 8,900 | 9,213 | 9,786 | |
| Domestic | 3,949 | 3,773 | 3,846 | 3,875 | 3,906 | |
| Overseas | 4,617 | 4,799 | 5,054 | 5,338 | 5,880 | |
* Data for each fiscal year is the data collated as of May of the following fiscal year
Creating Opportunities for New Solutions
In addition to securing intellectual property, we are actively working to create opportunities to develop solutions that extend beyond divisions.
For example, we provide opportunities to discuss ideas for solutions across product lines in which engineers from different product design departments can gather to understand the strengths and shortcomings, not just of our products, but our company as a whole. They can discuss how they would like our business to holistically be from the perspective of product collaboration in the medium- to long-term, and thereby help come up with new ideas for solutions that go beyond providing value for each product.
We are providing a forum for discussions free from the bindings of existing product and system structures, that brings together staff from sales and marketing, who are experts on our customers, and engineers from design departments, who are experts on our products. In doing so, we contribute to the creation of ideas for solutions that go beyond the knowledge gained in the process of developing and improving our products.
