Research & Development (R&D) / Intellectual Property

Intellectual Property

Overview of Our Intellectual Property Activities / Promotion System

Overview of our intellectual property activities

The Idemitsu Group’s business department, R&D department, and Intellectual Property Department collaborate to apply for and obtain rights to patents, trademarks, and other intellectual property, maintain and utilize them, and strive to improve our Group’s business and enhance the value of the brand.

With regard to risks and compliance related to intellectual property, such as respecting the intellectual property rights of other companies and managing confidential information, we design and implement appropriate processes to prevent the occurrence of risks.

Promotion system

Intellectual property activities are promoted through a system in which the Intellectual Property Department and IP managers assigned to each business department are working. Up to now, the Intellectual Property Department has adopted a centralized Intellectual Property activity system in which the Intellectual Property Department promoted the intellectual property activities of all Idemitsu Group’s business departments. However, in July 2021, we changed to a decentralized intellectual property activity structure with IP managers assigned to each business department for the purpose of accelerating the implementation of intellectual property strategies by the business departments.

The Intellectual Property Department mainly takes on corporate functions and is responsible for addressing intellectual property issues across our Group, proposing intellectual property strategies based on patent data analysis, addressing disputes with other companies, managing intellectual property risks, and training intellectual property human resources. The IP managers of business departments formulate IP strategies aligned with the strategies and business characteristics of their respective business departments and strive to expand business by swiftly and effectively acquiring and utilizing IP.

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  • * IPL: Intellectual Property Landscape (Intellectual property information analysis)
出光興産, DFF Inc.

Results of Patent Publications and Registered Patents Held

Number of patent applications and registered patents held

In order to leverage its patents to differentiate itself from its competitors and ensure business competitiveness, the Group works to build a robust patent portfolio. Patent applications are submitted based on application strategies that are in line with business development, such as not submitting applications in Japan but only in specific overseas countries in accordance with the market trends of each business. For this reason, the number of domestic applications (disclosed) decreased in FY2022 compared to the previous year, but the number of foreign applications increased significantly.

Looking at patent applications by business segment, the Functional Materials segment, which consists of technology- driven business divisions, accounted for more than 80% of all patent applications, both domestic and foreign. In the Functional Materials business department, the number of patent applications is set as one of the key performance indicators (KPI) to evaluate innovation efforts. We also use the number of patent applications to measure the effectiveness of our R&D investments.

Looking at the number of patents held, the number of foreign patents held, which are necessary for global business development, is steadily increasing.

With regard to foreign patents, we are strengthening the acquisition of patents ahead of competitors in the countries in which we have operations. By effectively leveraging the knowledge and experience of overseas attorneys, such as by providing opportunities for direct discussions with attorneys from overseas law firms, we are ensuring that we secure intellectual property rights that will strengthen our business competitiveness.

Trends in the number of patent applications (published applications)
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Trends in the number of patents held
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Value of patents held

The value* of the patents held by the Company has been enhanced by continuous R&D investments. The overall value of patents held is “1.89,” well exceeding “1.” Furthermore, in FY2022, patents with high value represent more than half of all patents held, an increase of about 2 percentage points over FY2020.

  • * Technology Relevance (TR): Value calculated based on the number of citations in the examination by the Patent Office in each country (the average value of TR is “1”). TR data in this report are calculated using PatentSight®, a patent analysis tool of LexisNexis®. Patents with TR>1 are defined as patents with high value, and the ratio of patents of high value to patents held is calculated.

In 2022, the patents of the Functional Materials business show a high value (2.20). These patents with high value have contributed significantly to improving the profitability of existing businesses, including the electronic materials business. In addition, the patents held in the three focus areas of the Functional Materials Segment (“Electrification & Electrification Solutions,” “Bio / life solutions,” and “ICT Solutions”) set forth in the Medium- term Management Plan have shown even higher values (3.60). We expect that this will contribute greatly to our business competitiveness in these fields in the future. In addition to demonstrating our accumulated abilities in technology, the Group will promote external cooperation with academia and start-ups that generate technological innovations, acquire valuable patents that will become a source of business competitiveness, and build a patent portfolio.

Value of patents held and percentage of patents with high value (company-wide)
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Value of patents held by the Functional Materials Segment and Functional Materials business focus areas (2022)
Segment Patent Value (TR) Number
of patents
Total patents held 1.89 5,638
  Of which, patents held by the Functional Materials Segment 2.20 5,115
Of which, Functional Materials business focus areas 3.60 1,196
出光興産, DFF Inc.

External Recognitions

Display Week 2022: OLED Technology Category: Best Paper (May 9, 2022)

Idemitsu developed a new light producing method for OLEDs using fluorescent blue-light emitting materials and succeeded in achieving the world’s highest light emitting rate and longevity. At the symposium ''Display Week 2022*'' held in San Jose, U.S.A., the paper presenting the achievement was selected as the best paper in the OLED Technology Category.

  • * The symposium held by the Society for Information Display, the world’s largest academic group for displays. of Information Display
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FY2022 Science and Technology from the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award (April 8, 2022)

Three Idemitsu employees received the Science and Technology Award (research division) in fiscal 2022 at the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Awards. The purpose of this award is to motivate people involved in science and technology and thereby help raise the standards of these disciplines in Japan by praising the successes of people who have secured remarkable accomplishments in research, development, and the promotion of understanding related to science and technology. The award achievement was “Development of a highly efficient and long-life blue organic EL light emitting device.”

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2018 Japan Institute of Invention and Innovation’s Excellent Invention Award (May 17, 2018)

Idemitsu was selected as a winner of both an Excellent Invention Award and an Award for Outstanding Practice of Innovation by the Japan Institute of Invention and Innovation under its FY2018 National Commendation for Invention program. This selection was attributable to an OLED element and an organic light emitting medium both developed by Idemitsu (patent No. 4221050).

The Japan Institute of Invention and Innovation has been sponsoring this award program to commend Japan’s leading researchers and scientists who contributed to the enhancement of the country’s scientific technologies and the development of its industrial sector. This award program is widely recognized as the most prestigious among intellectual property-related award programs in Japan.

In the development of a blue light-emitting element, which had been said to be difficult to put into practical use, Idemitsu achieved a blue color light-emitting element with much higher color purity than the previous blue one, contributing to prolonged life of displays. Idemitsu was highly evaluated by the institute for the significant contribution to the practical use of OLED full color displays.

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Award from the Commissioner of Japan Patent Office under the Intellectual Property Achievement Awards Program (April 11, 2018)

Idemitsu was chosen to receive an Award from the Commissioner of the Japan Patent Office, as one of recipients of Awards for Excellent Corporation Utilizing the Intellectual Property Rights System under the FY2018 Intellectual Property Achievement Awards program.

The Intellectual Property Achievement Awards program, sponsored jointly by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Japan patent Office, is intended to commend individuals and corporations that contributed to the development of the country’s intellectual property right system.

Idemitsu was highly commended for its track record in promoting its plans associated with intellectual property rights.

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出光興産, DFF Inc.

Employee Invention Incentives

To motivate employees to invent new things and encourage the creation of innovative inventions that lead to business growth, we established Company’s own “Employee Invention Incentive Program,” praising inventors, especially those who have made significant contributions to business earnings. In FY2022, 51 inventors were recognized for their outstanding results in the electronic materials field (7 products) and advanced materials & performance chemicals field (3 products) with the “Employee Invention Incentive” honor.

出光興産, DFF Inc.

Promotion of Intellectual Property Activities

Patents applications and acquisitions

From now on, we will continue to apply for patents for inventions that will strengthen our existing business (existing theme inventions), and we will further accelerate the generation of inventions that will become the fundamental technology for new businesses (newly generated theme inventions) that will be the next pillar of our revenues by strengthening our existing business through open innovation at the Advanced Materials Company and the Advanced Materials Project. In this way, we will increase the number of applications in the Functional Business Segment field and increase the percentage of applications for newly generated theme inventions in our applications, which will strengthen our patent portfolio that supports existing and new businesses.

With the aim of further strengthening the patent network of the Functional Materials segment, we have established intellectual property KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for each business field of the Functional Materials Segment, using the number of patent applications and the value of registered patents held as indicators, and will strengthen our patent application and acquisition activities.

Patent data analysis (IP landscape) activities

The Group’s patents with high value (technologies) are analyzed to identify technological strengths (core competencies) that can serve as a source of competitive advantage. In the future, we will consider and establish candidate themes for new growth areas based on these core competencies.

We also consider third-party technologies and patents that can augment and complement startups and supply chains, and we are engaged in initiatives to find partners that can help us launch new businesses.

Digital transformation (DX) activities

We promote the use of AI in a phased manner to improve the quality and efficiency of IP operations. We have established an environment that enables researchers to conduct prior technology investigations themselves through the use of AI, which IP managers had previously conducted, We have also begun considering the leverage of AI technology for researching registered trademarks and determining the patentability of completed inventions. We will continue to proactively incorporate AI technology into our intellectual property activities and promote high-quality intellectual property activities that adapt to the changing business environment.

Nurturing intellectual property personnel

We consider the development of intellectual property personnel to be one of our most important IP issues and focus on improving the expertise of our IP managers and the IP literacy of our researchers.

As for the nurturing of our IP managers, we took the opportunity of the change to a dispersed IP activity system with IP managers assigned to each business department to review the IP manager training system. We have added training by Japanese and overseas patent offices to the training that has been conducted within the Intellectual Property Department to create a training system that provides the knowledge and skills necessary for each level of employee.

Training by Japanese patent offices covers domestic patent applications and procedures for obtaining patents for IP managers in their first year with our company, using actual patent applications as the subject matter. We encourage the early independence of IP managers through training by Japanese patent offices.

Training at overseas patent offices is a one-year training program in the U.S. and China for mid-career employees who have been with our company for about 10 years. The training enables managers to acquire extensive and advanced knowledge and procedural skills related to foreign patents. Over the past two years, we had to suspend training at overseas patent offices due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but we plan to resume the program in the next fiscal year.

In the nurturing of researchers, we provide training by job level (new hires, first-year R&D / technical employees, mid-level employees, and executives). In the past, trainings were conducted as in-person lectures and exercises, but for the past two years, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they have been conducted online. Trainees have commented that training conducted online has enhanced their understanding of the content of the training since they can watch the lectures as many times as they wish. Going forward, we plan to conduct the training in a hybrid format of in-person and online to enhance the intellectual property literacy of our researchers.

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Future intellectual property activities

Future IP activities will focus even more on those business fields where intellectual property is of high importance in gaining business competitiveness. We will promote an IP strategy to demonstrate our abilities to be highly competitive by prioritizing and maximizing the leverage of IP resources in business fields where intellectual property is of high importance. We will also invest intellectual property resources in future business development, promoting initiatives in new growth areas and innovative technology development.

Future intellectual property activities (image)
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出光興産, DFF Inc.