Intellectual Property Strategy to Support Fujitsu's Purpose

Innovation and Intellectual Property

Intellectual property management targets are set with the objectives of fulfilling the Fujitsu Group's Purpose— "to make the world more sustainable by building trust in society through innovation" —and contributing to the Group’s innovation and creation of new values through strategic development and the utilization of intellectual capital, including technology, brands, and design rights.

Image of Fujitsu Group's purpose: "to make the world more sustainable by building trust in society through innovation"

Since its founding in 1935, the Fujitsu Group has grown through innovation that anticipates the needs of its customers and society. Now, digital services that aim to create new value that goes beyond changes to customer businesses and industry boundaries are at the forefront of the Group’s growth, which is driven by innovation.

To achieve our purpose, the Group is committed to consolidating our management resources in technology, which is essential for our digital services, and to pursuing a technology strategy that reinforces our technological infrastructure under our medium-term management plan. Intellectual property management promotes our technology strategy, and supports value creation by maintaining and strengthening the competitive advantage of the Group's intellectual capital, including technology, design, and design rights.

Intellectual Property Management and Corporate Value

Intellectual property management contributes to value creation by developing and utilizing our intellectual property portfolio, encompassing not only acquiring the rights of the Group's intellectual capital but also risk management to reduce the occurrence of risks that lead to damage to corporate and social value, including respecting the rights held by both the Group and other companies, as well as measures to protect against the infringement of these rights.

Contribution to Value Creation

We are promoting rights acquisition for technology developed by the Fujitsu Group and design rights and brands generated when integrating the technology into society. Through appropriate management, we are expanding opportunities for license fees and differentiating ourselves from technology and services offered by others, which leads to maintaining and strengthening the competitive advantage of the Group’s technology and services.

We are also supporting the search for growth opportunities by widely surveying, analyzing, and disseminating global technology trends, such as the status of patent applications in domains that hold strategic importance for the Fujitsu Group. Furthermore, we are actively participating in the open source software (OSS) community, which is essential for our digital services, and are contributing to the formulation of an ecosystem for value creation and generation of an environment that encourages innovation through the development of rules for utilizing intellectual property.

Reduction of Risk of Damage to Value

Reducing the risk of damage to value is an important initiative for protecting intellectual property rights. Infringement by other parties of the rights held by the Fujitsu Group not only obstructs the implementation of business strategies but may also have a negative impact on the competitive environment and trust in Fujitsu's brands by customers. Accordingly, we are constantly monitoring whether our rights have been infringed upon. If a possible infringement is discovered, we implement countermeasures in a swift and appropriate manner.

Additionally, Our Code of Conduct that constitutes the Fujitsu Way, as well as Our Purpose and Our Values, specify that we protect and respect intellectual property. Therefore, we respect the intellectual property of other parties in the same way we acquire rights for our own intellectual property. To connect specific actions to this Code of Conduct, the Group has also established the Rules for Handling Intellectual Property Rights, and applies them to Fujitsu and domestic Group companies engaged in intellectual property activities. Furthermore, we strive to reduce the risk of infringing rights held by other parties through measures including thoroughly implementing patent infringement avoidance surveys and OSS license management, and responding to consultations within the Company on contract clauses related to intellectual property.

Priorities for Intellectual Property Management

Five Key Technology Areas

Under our technology strategy, the Fujitsu Group is consolidating management resources in the five Key Technologies vital for our technology services-Computing, Network, AI, Data & Security, and Converging Technology. By aggregating management resources, we aim to reinforce our technological infrastructure, and to enhance the connection between research and development and business strategies. As a result, we will realize commercialization in an effective and speedy manner, leading to value creation. Accordingly, in intellectual property management, we have positioned the creation and utilization of our intellectual property portfolio with a focus on our five Key Technology Areas as a strategic priority.

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Uvance

Uvance defines our vision for society in 2030 and is a solution for taking on sustainable transformation. The five Key Technology Areas are also the technological infrastructure behind Uvance. Through Uvance, we intend to sustainably grow the Fujitsu Group by transforming into a business that has a better impact on the environment, society, and the economy, as well as on working with customers to create value.

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Promotion System for Intellectual Property Management

Intellectual Property Division Organization and Governance System

The Intellectual Property Division (the Intellectual Property Global Head Office), which belongs to the Legal and Intellectual Property Unit under the General Counsel, consists of the Intellectual Property Strategy Office, which formulates and promotes company-wide intellectual property strategies based on communication with management, and the Intellectual Property Center, which implements intellectual property portfolio construction. In addition to collaborating within the division, we also work with Fujitsu Techno Research Ltd., which provides intellectual property-related services, to execute intellectual property management.

The formulation of IP management strategy and policy for the activities of the Intellectual Property Division is not limited solely to the Division itself, but is undertaken in collaboration with the Technology Units headed by the Chief Technology Officer (CTO). In this way, IP management is integrated with our broader management strategy and business portfolio strategy. In addition, at meetings of the Independent Directors & Auditors Council, which includes external directors and auditors, the Head of the Legal and Intellectual Property Unit reports on the strategy and progress of intellectual property management and provides opportunities for discussion with management.

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Group and Global Collaboration

A diagram representing the intellectual property governance structure

Fujitsu has developed an intellectual property governance structure to make the best possible use of its intellectual capital throughout the Fujitsu Group. This ensures that IP management undertaken by Group companies in Japan are integrated. Where a company undertakes independent IP activities as a partial exception, a reporting line is set up and the activity is conducted through close collaboration. Globally, through intellectual property support for research facilities established in another 7 countries around the world to ensure that all IP management conforms to the realities of global business.

Alignment between Technology and Business Portfolio Strategies

The Intellectual Property Division contributes to maintaining and reinforcing the Fujitsu Group's competitive advantage and acquiring business opportunities by organizationally promoting intellectual property activities in alignment with the technology and business portfolio strategies, which aggregate our five Key Technology Areas. During intellectual property activities, we will not only focus on realizing license fees by exercising our rights but also issues including the Group's technological capabilities, pursuit of advantageous offerings, differentiation from the offerings of other companies, and developing new customers and business negotiations. We will achieve this through measures such as patent discovery and acquisition during development, and patent marking during business negotiations.

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Fujitsu's Intellectual Property

Intellectual Property

Intellectual Property Strategy to Support Fujitsu's Purpose

Intellectual Property Portfolio

Brands & Trademarks / Design & Design Rights

Intellectual Property Management and Risk Compliance

International Standardization and Rulemaking

Efforts to Utilize Intellectual Property for Co-creation

Evaluations from Third Parties

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