Intellectual Property
Basic Policy
Kaneka Group secures intellectual property rights, such as patents, for the results of its R2B+P activities, aiming to contribute to the prompt provision of solutions to help resolve social issues. Researchers and engineers recognize intellectual property as an output of R2B+P activities and actively seek to acquire intellectual property rights based on their results.
To respect the intellectual property rights of others and avoid patent disputes, we make sure to carry out patent searches, trademark searches, and design surveys at various stages in the business development process, such as theme proposals, capital investments, commercialization, specification changes, and brand naming, taking every possible precaution to ensure clearance.
We align our intellectual property strategy closely with our business strategy. In priority technology areas, we create high-quality inventions and file patent applications to secure competitive advantage, building an intellectual property portfolio that supports sustainable business growth.
Promotion System
The Intellectual Property Department, which operates directly under the President, works to secure and maintain the Kaneka Group’s intellectual property in terms of both quantity and quality to support our business. At each of our regional headquarters, we have assigned intellectual property specialists to respond directly to local issues. We are also strengthening collaboration between the various Group companies and the Intellectual Property Department to mitigate intellectual property risks and prevent leaks of trade secrets.
Based on our Corporate Governance Code, we continue activities to improve our governance of intellectual property. We hold monthly reporting meetings with the director in charge of the Intellectual Property Department. In addition, to strengthen our intellectual property strategies, meetings are held once a year for each division. These meetings are attended by general managers of the division, the research division, and the Intellectual Property Department.
We will continue to strengthen the linkage between our intellectual property strategy and the business and research strategies of each division, with the aim of contributing to business performance.
Creation of Intellectual Property
To strengthen the business portfolio, Kaneka proactively files patent applications in Japan and overseas and works to acquire rights.
In FY2024, 393 Japanese patents and 243 foreign patents were newly registered. At the same time, we are working to efficiently manage the costs of intellectual property. As a result of actively surrendering dormant patents, we held 3,421 Japanese patents and 3,268 foreign patents as of the end of FY2024, roughly the same number as the previous year.
Going forward, we will build a strategic intellectual property portfolio that emphasizes both quantity and quality. We will focus not only on expanding the portfolio but also on creating and maintaining high-value patents that enhance business competitiveness.
Number of Japanese Patents Held
Number of Foreign Patents Held
Resources and Intellectual Property
Human Resource Development
We provide intellectual property education to researchers and engineers to ensure that they recognize intellectual property as outputs of our R2B+P activities and protect their results as intellectual property rights.
We also support the active utilization of these results.
We provide intellectual property training covering everything from the basics to applications such as invention discovery and patent specification drafting, as well as intellectual property strategy. Training programs are tailored for each organizational level, from new hires and junior employees to mid-level employees and leaders. Employees in charge of technology and sales, including those at Group companies, undergo this training.
We use e-learning in our intellectual property education, and have provided a wide range of programs, including strategic training on theme creation and market information utilization, search training, stage-based training on creation of rights, training on trademarks, branding, and copyrights. We also collaborate with external experts to develop our human resources in areas such as theme creation, information utilization, and strategy formulation.
Overview of IP Education Program
Integration of Business Strategy and Intellectual Property Strategy
Integration Initiatives
To strengthen business competitiveness, we promote information analysis and utilization and have established a specialized group within the Intellectual Property Department to enhance the effectiveness of our intellectual property strategy. In addition to analytical work, we hold seminars and workshops on information utilization methods and approaches to generate future business ideas, promoting innovation across the organization.
The Intellectual Property Department and each division collaborate to adress diverse challenges in research and development and business, and to formulate strategies, while sharing the importance and value of information utilization. In particular, by integrating business strategy and intellectual property strategy, we promote the creation of high-quality intellectual property based on competitive environment analysis and understanding of customer value, thereby enhancing business competitiveness.
Quality-Focused Initiatives
We evaluate intellectual property with an emphasis on quality, rather than focusing solely on the number of intellectual property rights and cost management. Specifically, we use various patent analysis tools to assess the value of our patents and determine whether they are necessary for our current and future business. By advancing these efforts, we monitor both the quantity and quality of intellectual property rights and build a higher-quality portfolio of intellectual property rights to enhance competitiveness. When deciding whether to maintain patent rights, we comprehensively evaluate the value of each patent by considering its contribution to our technologies and businesses, maintenance costs, and objectively assessed patent quality. We build an efficient and robust intellectual property portfolio by selecting intellectual property that contributes to future business growth and conducting appropriate portfolio reviews.
Business Protection through Intellectual Property
Information Leakage and Legal Compliance
To prevent our proprietary technology and know-how from being leaked, we provide intellectual property protection training to sales representatives. The training, which includes measures against leakage of confidential information, is provided when these staff are developing customers or providing samples. We also regularly provide training to instill respect for the rights of others and strengthen compliance with laws and regulations on copyright, covering topics such as preventing copyright infringement when creating materials.
Protecting our Brands
To support the brand development of our mainstay products, we have acquired trademarks in countries around the world to protect the brands of global products such as KANEKA Biodegradable Polymer Green Planet™ and KANEKALON™ materials for hair attachments. We constantly monitor trademark applications around the world, working continuously to prevent others from licensing the same or similar trademarks. If an application for a similar trademark is detected, an objection is filed with each country’s patent office, which leads to others being prevented from licensing similar trademarks.
We regularly hold trademark seminars for business divisions to promote that our trademarks are used appropriately and effectively in our business activities.
