A Limitless Adventure
R&B Strategies
Bringing people and technology together to venture into uncharted fields
R&B at Kaneka, the Dreamology Company
R&B Intellectual Property Strategy
We aim to secure rights to the results of our research and development and to provide solutions at an early stage. We consider intellectual property to be one of the outputs of R&B’s activities and strive to acquire intellectual property such as results and know-how.
In addition, non-research employees also understand the importance of intellectual property and use it in their work.
Number of Domestic Patents HeldNumber of Foreign Patents Held
In fiscal 2021, we newly registered 258 domestic patents and 280 foreign patents.
At the same time, we strive to manage our intellectual property expenses efficiently, and actively abandon unused patents.
At the end of fiscal 2021, the number of patents held was 3,285 domestic patents and 3,473 foreign patents, roughly level with the previous fiscal year.
We evaluate patents in terms of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects. We have introduced LexisNexis’ PatentSight™, and continue to monitor the Patent Asset Index™, a patent value index based on the technical value and market value of patent families, as one of our indicators. We are forming a network of rights strategically, both in terms of quality and quantity.
PatentSight™ and Patient Asset Index™ are registered trademarks of PatentSight GmbH.
Number of Green Planet™ Patent Applications and Value of Patents
As a fusion of our unique technologies, Green Planet™ is a key theme that we focus on from the perspective of intellectual property, and we are actively applying for patents.
A wide variety of applications have been developed from the breeding and culture of bacterial strains and polymer refining to molding processing technology. This has led to an increase in the number of applications. The Patent Asset Index™ has been steadily increasing, showing that the value of patents is improving. Going forward, we will continue to accelerate our acquisition of rights with a view to delivering results in social implementation.
Actively Using Data
Strong Promotion of Intellectual Property and Digital Transformation
To check for relevant prior art, we have embarked on an attempt to use AI search tools to optimize our pre-patent application prior art search while shortening the time frame required for reporting. In addition, we are carrying out trials of AI tools for searches of other companies’ patents done by researchers.
IP Landscape™ Initiatives
We are also making use of IP landscape™ that combine intellectual property and non-intellectual property information for analysis. In fiscal 2021, we assigned a full-time staff member in the Intellectual Property Department to identify the needs of the R&B departments and explore our own IP landscape™ through trial and error.
For example, in searching for applications for newly developed resins, we structure the results of analyses so as to combine information such as patent trends and press releases of other companies in similar materials. This provides information to aid decisions on business strategy.
IP landscape™ is a registered trademark of Shobayashi International Patent & Trademark Office.
Accumulating Intellectual Property for Kaneka’s Technological Challenges
We have created a landscape map for a full overview of our accumulation of technology. From the map, we can see that we have expanded our technology mainly to core polymer technology and biotechnology. At the same time, we have also ventured into uncharted domains that appear to be technological enclaves, such as medical instruments and solar cells.
In recent years, we have accumulated experience in developing technologies that use information processing technology and also in tackling new fields such as dairy products in the food field.
Going forward, we will continue to take on the challenge of creating value in new areas. We will also work on new challenges by combining existing technologies and external technologies.
Landscape map of Kaneka’s proprietary technologies
Overview of our published patents (applications filed from 2002 to 2021) by VALUENEX Radar (VALUENEX Japan Inc.)
(The plotline (in red) indicates 2017-2021 applications)
