Intellectual Property (IP) Strategy to Support Fujitsu's Purpose

Fujitsu’s Purpose is to make the world more sustainable by building trust in society through innovation. To achieve this, the aim of our intellectual property management policy is to contribute to innovation and new value creation in the Fujitsu Group by strategically building and utilizing intellectual capital, including our technology, our brand and our designs.
Intellectual property management encompasses two main aspects. One is the construction of an intellectual property portfolio including prosecution for the intellectual capital already held by the Fujitsu Group and then using that portfolio to create new value. The other is risk management, which consists of lowering the incidence of risks likely to diminish our corporate or social value, primarily through measures that promote respect for and prevent violations of our rights and those of third parties.

The Fujitsu Group secures the rights to the technologies it has developed and to the brands and designs created through deployment of those technologies in society. Appropriate management of those rights allows us to differentiate our offerings from the technologies and services provided by our competitors, and maintain and strengthen the competitive advantage of our own technologies and services.
To support the search for new growth opportunities, the Fujitsu Group conducts thorough research and analysis of global technology trends, sharing information such as the status of patent applications in strategically important areas. Through its commitment to materiality, the Group must also build broad-based, industry-agnostic partnerships to address a range of sustainability issues. The Group’s commitment to open innovation as well as standardization and rulemaking puts it in a position of active industry leadership, and by pursuing initiatives geared to deployment in society, the Group is also helping to build a value co-creation ecosystem and an environment that fosters innovation. In this way, we are adopting a variety of approaches to contribute to value creation, including through technology, brand and design rights, license management in the area of open innovation, and the establishment of global standards and rules.

One important way to reduce the risk of losing corporate value is by protecting intellectual property. Other party ‘infringement of rights held by the Fujitsu Group not only obstruct the progress of our business strategy, they also have the potential to negatively impact customers’ trust in the Fujitsu brand in a competitive environment. For this reason, we constantly monitor for infringements, and where a proposal is discovered that could potentially cause a rights violation, we immediately execute appropriate countermeasures.
Fujitsu’s Code of Conduct which, together with our Purpose and Values makes up the Fujitsu Way, clearly states our commitment to respecting and protecting intellectual property and respecting the intellectual property rights of others, just as they respect our own acquisition of rights to intellectual capital. We We have established Rules for Handling Intellectual Property Rights that link this Code of Conduct to specific actions; these rules are being applied to Fujitsu and Group companies in Japan that undertake actions involving intellectual property. We are also striving to reduce the risk of infringement of the rights held by other parties. This entails intellectual property checks such as conducting patent infringement surveys and checking trademarks and design rights throughout the commercialization and development of a product or service. It also involves responding to internal requests for advice concerning the terms and conditions of IP agreements.

The Intellectual Property Division (the Intellectual Property Global Head Office) forms part of the Legal and Intellectual Property Unit and reports to the General Counsel. It comprises the Intellectual Property Strategy Office, which develops and promotes the company’s intellectual property strategy in consultation with management, and the Intellectual Property Center, responsible for building the company’s IP portfolio. In addition to collaboration within the division, the Intellectual Property Division manages intellectual property in collaboration with Fujitsu Techno Research Ltd., which provides IP-related services.
The Intellectual Property Division also collaborates with the Technology Unit headed by the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to implement IP activities that support corporate value creation, rapidly incorporating the Technology, Management, and Business Portfolio strategies, and their progress, into IP strategies and the action plans of the Intellectual Property Division. In addition, at meetings such as the Independent Directors & Auditors Council attended by external directors and auditors, the Head of the Legal and Intellectual Property Unit reports on these IP management strategies and their progress, providing opportunities for discussion with management.

The Fujitsu Group is engaged in open innovation through the utilization of intellectual property. We propose licensing schemes suited to our partners, along with support such as identifying applicable intellectual property, to encourage the utilization of our technology.