Konica Minolta 2006 Annual Report Download - page 35

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33
for the Management of Industrial Property Rights” and in “Regulations for Industrial
Property Right Awards”, which govern the Group’s acquisition and management of
intellectual property rights. These regulations abolish upper caps on compensatory
payment and provide for a system that allows the inventor to receive a lump sum
compensatory payment when the patent is filed in order to provide even greater
incentive for employee inventions.
In terms of trade secret management and technology security, in line with, the basic
policies as outlined in the “Konica Minolta Group Compliance Guidelines” “Standards
for the Management of Confidential Information” have been created by each business
company and form the basis for efforts to educate employees to raise awareness, and
these guidelines are being thoroughly applied through operational audits of each
organization. Through such efforts, the Group is working to ensure that confidential
information is being appropriately managed and to prevent the inadvertent leakage of
confidential information.
5. Business Contribution of Licensing-Related Activities
The Group is effectively utilizing the large number of intellectual property rights it
holds to ensure product differentiation and competitive advantage, and thereby
ensure business profitability in each related business. On the other hand, in busi-
ness domains where the technology is becoming increasingly sophisticated and
complicated, the Group is pursuing a strategy of cross-licensing in order to acquire
needed technology from other companies to ensure sustainable growth for the
business and a degree of freedom in R&D.
6. Patent Portfolio Contributions to Business
The Group’s actively files patents for the R&D accomplishments of each business
area, as it believes that assuring patent superiority is basis for business contribution.
In order to ensure patent superiority, the Group specifies priority technology domains
and areas to drive business expansion and the Group’s “genre-top” strategy. Efforts in
these designated domains and areas are not limited to systematic and concentrated
patent applications. The Group is also seeking business contribution through the
selection of foreign countries in which patent applications will be made and early
patent right conversion will be promoted.
Trend in Disclosed Patents in Japan and U.S. Patents Granted
2003 2004 2005
Disclosed Patents in Japan Patents (Number) 4,107 4,417 4,268
Ranking (Est.) 12 12 12
U.S. Patents Granted Patents (Number) 380 404 316
Ranking (Est.) 55 50 56
Notes: (1) Aggregate Japan publicly disclosed patents held by the prior Konica and Minolta companies
based data published in Diamond Co., Ltd.’s “IP & Technology 2004-4” publication.
The rankings for the number of U.S. patents granted are the aggregated totals of the prior
Konica, Minolta and Group companies, based on data compiled by the Intellectual
Property Owners Association (http://www.ipo.org/).
(2) Years in the table refer to calendar years.