Intellectual Property
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Approach
The IHI Group recognizes intellectual property as one of its key management resources and actively promotes its protection and utilization to achieve sustainable growth in corporate value through businesses that address social issues. Specifically, the Basic Policy on IHI Group Intellectual Property has been established and intellectual property initiatives are developed in alignment with business and technology strategies based on the management policy. Furthermore, the Group continuously works to raise Group employees’ awareness of intellectual property as a vital management resource, while striving to conduct intellectual property activities that contribute to business growth and ensure operations that respect and do not infringe upon the intellectual property of others.
Policy
Basic Policy on IHI Group Intellectual Property
The IHI Group conducts intellectual property activities in alignment with its management policies, business strategies, and technology strategies based on the following basic principles.
- Actively utilize information related to intellectual property to support the formulation of various strategies and facilitate decision-making.
- Utilize intellectual property as a key management resource to drive business initiatives.
- Respect other companies’ intellectual property rights and strive to ensure compliance.
Governance
The IHI Group has designated intellectual property managers for each division and affiliated company to oversee the formulation of intellectual property policies and to promote the advancement of business and technology strategies through the utilization of intellectual property.
Strategy
The IHI Group is dedicated to effectively leveraging publicly available intellectual property information and actively develops and promotes various strategies through the utilization of IP landscape*. For example, in the clean energy field, a development-focused business highlighted in its Group Management Policies 2023, the IHI Group is working to establish an ammonia value chain and to develop and promote businesses based on ammonia fuel technology. In these efforts, the Group utilizes IP landscape to gain an objective understanding of the business environment and its own strengths, enabling the development and promotion of its business strategies. The IHI Group also applies IP landscape to formulate technology development strategies and business strategies for its growth businesses and core businesses defined in its Group Management Policies 2023. Furthermore, IP landscape is also employed to assess the company’s position in critical technologies that serve as the foundation for the IHI Group’s medium- to long-term competitiveness, facilitating the formulation of research and development investment plans.
IP landscape: A term combining intellectual property (IP) and landscape (scenery, environment, outlook). It refers to the practice of analyzing intellectual property information and utilizing the results to formulate corporate management strategies and make informed decisions. The term is also used to describe corporate management that places an emphasis on intellectual property.
Risks
The IHI Group is committed to reducing and avoiding risks that could impede the sustainable growth of its corporate value, particularly from the perspective of intellectual property. For example, as part of its technology development and business activities, the Group thoroughly monitors and searches for patent applications, including those of other companies, to ensure that it does not infringe upon the intellectual property rights of others. Furthermore, to safeguard the IHI Group’s reputation from risks associated with imitations of its products and services, the Group actively protects its trademarks and takes countermeasures against counterfeit products.
Opportunities
The IHI Group, operating on a global scale, takes proactive measures to protect, manage, and utilize its intellectual property, recognizing these actions as vital to the sustainable growth of its corporate value. In particular, fostering and expanding markets requires an environment where superior technologies that deliver value to customers are appropriately evaluated. While protecting its core technologies as intellectual property and strategically retaining them within the company, the IHI Group simultaneously engages in international standardization activities to drive market creation and expansion. For example, the Group has actively collaborated with government agencies, relevant organizations, and companies to advance international standardization for ammonia fuel. As a result, the International Organization for Standardization has published a technical specification for the use of ammonia fuel.
Initiatives
Education/Awareness Building
Intellectual Property Education
The IHI Group provides employees with basic training on intellectual property as well as education on topics such as invention submission, patent searches, copyrights, trademarks, and more. Most of this training is delivered online or via e-learning, enhancing accessibility and fostering self-directed learning. In addition to these programs, the Group seeks to improve intellectual property literacy and raise awareness through various initiatives. These include targeted training for specific divisions or positions, lectures on intellectual property, development programs designed for equipping the next generation talent with the ability to manage intellectual property, business, and technology in an integrated manner, and regular information updates from the Intellectual Property Department.
Intellectual Property Course Participants (Total)
(Unit: People, Scope: IHI and affiliated companies in Japan)
Intellectual Property Protection
The IHI Group protects its inventions by securing rights through patent applications and maintaining the confidentiality of its proprietary know-how. When filing patent applications abroad, the Group carefully selects target countries based on forecasts of global business expansion and technological development trends.
Decisions regarding the retention or abandonment of its own rights are made with careful consideration of future competitive environments and cost-effectiveness. Any proprietary know-how is strictly protected under internal regulations and contracts.
Number of Patent Acquisitions
(Unit: Reports, Owner: IHI and affiliated companies in Japan)
Regional Comparison in Number of Patents
(Unit: Reports, Owner: IHI)
Innovation Management Top
