Intellectual Property Initiatives

Toshiba Group believes that proper management and utilization of intellectual properties is essential to enhance corporate value. 
Toshiba Group aims to enhance corporate value by formulating intellectual property strategies from various perspectives including collaborative creation with business partners and utilization of intellectual properties, overviewing the entire business scheme, and by strengthening our intellectual property capabilities through such measures as analyzing intellectual property information, developing intellectual property based on the intellectual property strategies, and optimizing our intellectual property portfolio in consideration of the competition.

Toshiba Group’s basic policy on intellectual property rights is to comply with laws and regulations associated with intellectual property rights, to protect the results of intellectual activities with intellectual property rights, make extensive use of those results, and to respect the legitimate intellectual property rights of third parties. This policy is stipulated in the Standards of Conduct for Toshiba Group.
We will be engaged in activities designed to strengthen the intellectual property abilities and strategic concept planning that support our strong lineup of technologies and products, and will increase the number of opportunities available for us to proactively leverage our intellectual properties to resolve social issues, helping maximize our corporate value.

• Standards of Conduct for Toshiba Group  12. Intellectual Property Rights

Toshiba Group implements an intellectual property strategy with the aim of increasing opportunities for finding solutions to social issues and maximizing our corporate value.
In the service domain such as Energy x Digital or Infrastructure x Digital, it is important that we formulate intellectual property strategies that can increase opportunities for finding solutions to social problems and achieving success in our business. Such strategies must take into account not only the service domain but the entire business, including the cyber and physical domains. It is for this reason that Toshiba Group has assumed as part of its concentrated efforts to formulate intellectual property strategies from various perspectives including collaborative creation with business partners and utilization of intellectual properties, overviewing the entire business scheme.
To perform our intellectual property strategy, it is essential that we manage our intellectual property items (patents, data, know-how, etc.). Given the importance of ensuring that confidential information is kept secret so as to prevent handled data and know-how from being leaked, particularly in the cyber domain, we have strengthened the ways in which we utilize and protect data, and are committed to ensuring appropriate management of the Company’s know-how as confidential information.
Furthermore, as the base of intellectual property strategy, the intellectual property is essential to supports our strong technology and products, particularly in the physical domain. For this reason, we are focusing on strengthening our intellectual property portfolio by creating intellectual properties based on intellectual property information analysis and our strategy, optimizing our intellectual property portfolio in consideration of competitors, and having free to operate throughout patent clearance from other companies.

Reflecting our global expansion, more than half of our patent applications are filed with foreign countries, particularly in the United States and China. We select and file for patent items in each business domain so that we can create an optimal portfolio based on our intellectual property strategy. The number of patent applications we have made this past three years is as detailed below:

Each year, we evaluate all of our registered patents owned, and create an optimal portfolio based on such evaluation result for each business domain.

Winner of FY2021 National Commendation for Invention - Invention Prize
Invention of technology for treating contaminated waste water from nuclear power plants (Patent No. 6158014)

The invention, related to an adsorbent developed to remove radionuclides from contaminated water discharged from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, won the 2021 National Commendation for Invention – Invention Prize.
It allows for simultaneous and high-adsorbent performance removal of radioactive cesium (Cs) and radioactive strontium (Sr) from within the contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. This invention has been realized by achieving improved adsorption performance through crystallization control and practical strength through granulation control. The adsorbent boasts high-adsorbent performance and can be processed with fewer adsorption towers than if using conventional products. The invention minimizes the amount of radioactive waste generated and helps contribute to a reduced environmental load.

• Evaluation from External Parties Received since FY2021

The organizational structure of the Intellectual Property Division is composed of the corporate staff division’s Intellectual Property Office, and the intellectual property divisions at our individual laboratories and key Group companies. The corporate staff division’s Intellectual Property Office is responsible for, related to intellectual property across Toshiba Group, formulating and promoting strategy and measures, handling contracts and disputes, managing patent information and deals with matters related to intellectual property right laws, such as the Copyright Law. Meanwhile, the intellectual property divisions of research laboratories and Group companies formulate intellectual property strategies in their respective development and business domains and work to build and utilize an optimal intellectual property portfolio. We have intellectual property officers located in both the United States and China to help promote out intellectual property strategy globally.
With regard to management resource allocation, including investment in intellectual property, and the execution of strategies relating to our business portfolio, each of our executive officers report to the Board of Directors on the status of their respective initiatives, whereupon they receive supervision and advice.

In order to create an optimal portfolio for its businesses, each year, Toshiba Group extracts all of its existing patents and design patents that have been registered, evaluates all of the respective rights, and determines whether or not it is necessary to maintain those rights. Any registered patents and design patents that have no prospect of their rights being utilized or for which there is less value in continuing to hold be abandoned, with resources reallocated to acquiring or maintaining rights in other key domains.
Further, the results of such rights evaluations shall be used to remunerate the inventors and creators responsible for outstanding inventions so as to provide an incentive for the creation of new inventions and designs.

Toshiba Group provides its employees in Japan with e-learning type training each year for the purpose of refreshing their awareness of the Standards of Conduct regarding intellectual property rights and, primarily, for alerting them to copyright issues. The participation rate in FY2021 was 99.4%.
Newly hired employees are provided with general training on intellectual property rights as part of the Corporate Entry Program (CEP), which is followed by level-specific education/training programs in line with each business division.
We have established a basic training program for intellectual property officers with the education covering areas such as knowledge-acquisition of both domestic and overseas intellectual property rights, preparation of patent specification documents, practical training with office action, and on-the-job training, so that they will be able to put their training into practice in two years.
In addition, we provide education at our overseas subsidiaries that is appropriate for each region. For example, our Chinese subsidiaries provide copyright training on the proper use of software, and our U.S. subsidiaries provide intellectual property training targeting both newly hired and existing employees.

Toshiba Group holds the Toshiba Group Intellectual Property Conference each year, where it awards particularly outstanding inventions with “Excellent Invention Award”.
In FY2021, 6 Business Contribution Prizes were granted to commemorate inventions that had made significant contributions to the Company’s business, and 4 Future Value Creation Prizes in commemoration of inventions which we expect will contribute to business or provide value to society in future. Award winners were announced online as per last year. The final stage of the convention also featured a special lecture from a guest lecturer and a webinar and panel discussion hosted by an in-house intellectual property rights expert themed around the topic of how intellectual properties extend across multiple sectors.
Moving forward, we will continue to provide an environment that facilitates employees to create inventions, and will strive to improve employees’ motivation for invention.

The Toshiba brand symbolizes the value of Toshiba Group as a corporation, and the value of the products or services that we offer. In order to ensure the protection of the Toshiba brand, we manage trademark rights and remove counterfeit products.
Failure to take action against counterfeits of Toshiba products would pose not only the risk of damage to Toshiba's brand value and public confidence, but also the risk of purchasing counterfeit products that do not meet the quality expectations of customers who mistake them for genuine products, as well as an increased risk of an accident occurring. For this reason, we strive to eradicate counterfeit products, collaborating with domestic and overseas anti-counterfeit organizations, and are actively appealing to local bodies such as government agencies for more stringent control.

In order to contribute to global environmental conservation through the utilization of patents and other intellectual properties, Toshiba has registered environmental technology-related patent rights with WIPO GREEN, a platform operated by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to promote global transfer of environmental technology. Toshiba will continue working through this initiative to roll out environment-related technologies and intellectual properties worldwide, thus helping to resolve climate change and other environment-related social issues and contributing to the fulfillment of the SDGs.

• WIPO GREEN