The Nippon Kayaku Group has expanded business by applying core technologies passed down since our
establishment. The intellectual property created and used in the process is positioned as a source of corporate value. At the Intellectual Property Division, we promote intellectual property activities in a strategic and practical manner along two axes: depth through knowledge deepening, and width through knowledge exploration.
Under knowledge deepening, we formulate intellectual property strategies as well as apply for patents and establishing rights to delve deeper, develop, and optimize existing businesses. At the same time, we strive to enhance the Nippon Kayaku Group’s technological capabilities and competitiveness through collaboration with the business divisions aimed at reducing intellectual property risk based on respecting the intellectual property of other companies. Under knowledge exploration, we use intellectual property landscaping to quickly grasp customer needs,
promote research and development that leads to new businesses and products, and create intellectual property.
Conceptual Diagram of Our Group’s Intellectual Property Strategy
AI technologies are advancing significantly in recent years, and amid their greater use in intellectual property operations, qualities that cannot be fully pursued using AI—in terms of the insight and intuition backed by the experience of intellectual property staff—will become increasingly important in future intellectual property strategies that include the use of intangible assets.
The Nippon Kayaku Group emphasizes the nurturing and skill development of intellectual property staff, implementing proactive initiatives and support. Currently, the Intellectual Property Division has many members with intellectual propertyrelated qualifications, such as patent attorneys, Certified Specialists of Intellectual Property Management, and librarians. Recently, we have also been focusing on obtaining Intellectual Property Analyst qualifications. Many members came from research and development divisions, and we strive to have abundant intellectual property staff with both expertise and practical skills.
As part of our intellectual property activities, the Nippon Kayaku Group assigns dedicated intellectual property staff to business divisions to strengthen our intellectual property strategies, which are key assets in management.
Business divisions stationed with intellectual property staff collaborate closely with research and development divisions to achieve maximization of invention opportunities and speedy acquisition of rights. We also strengthen intellectual property activities from both aspects of defense—in terms of protecting core technologies—and offense that includes expanding our scope of involvement, and provide information that helps business strategies and research and development through intellectual property landscaping. In addition, we strive to ensure market advantage by acquiring patents, trademarks, designs, expertise, and other intellectual property rights. We also work on reducing the risk of infringing on the rights of others and propose improvements to enhance the effectiveness of intellectual property strategies.
Going forward, we aim to further improve the quality of our intellectual property activities through strengthening our acquisition of multiple intellectual property rights and efficiently utilizing external resources.
In intellectual property landscaping, besides patent information, we will visualize the trends of competitors and customers as well as industry and technology trends, among others, from the perspective of Nippon Kayaku.
We will also go on to provide information that is useful not only for business but also for management as well as create added value through dialogue and discussions with research and business divisions.
Conceptual Diagram of Business Growth and
Added Value Creation Through Intellectual Property
In the Catalysts Business, the Intellectual Property Division collaborates closely with the business division and laboratory to formulate intellectual property strategies and optimize portfolios, achieving intellectual property protection from multiple aspects that go beyond catalysts themselves to reach production methods, applications, plant operating methods, and even business models. Such a strategy that protects the entire business makes it possible to undertake business activities that are difficult for other companies to imitate, significantly contributing toward the strengthening of competitiveness.
The effects of this initiative include the refining of application policies; improvement of specialized knowledge by sharing examples of disputes within the industry and non-patent intellectual property (such as expertise, trademarks, and designs); fostering of intellectual property awareness; and raising the level of intellectual property skills. We also conduct regular stocktaking of existing patents and strive to maintain patent groups with a strong deterrent effect, which helps to improve the quality of intellectual property.
As shown in the table on the right, the catalyst-related intellectual property portfolio held by the Nippon Kayaku Group is highly valued even when evaluated objectively, supporting the stable earnings of the Catalysts Business. Centered on catalysts used in the production of acrylic acid and methacrylic acid, the Catalysts Business is achieving steady growth, including net sales that are expected to exceed 10 billion yen in FY2025. In addition, our catalysts—characterized by high yield and high cost performance—are highly evaluated by customers, and we are gaining new customers and expanding their adoption. As an initiative for the future, we are also focusing on developing next-generation catalysts, such as those for producing propylene from bioethanol and catalysts for hydrogen production.
We will contribute to the growth of the Catalysts Business and the creation of new products by providing strong support for existing products and new themes from the aspect of intellectual property.
Number of catalysts with TR≧2
In FY2025, we established the Intellectual Property Planning Team as an internal organization within the Intellectual Property Department to promote the optimization of intellectual property investment efficiency. The Intellectual Property Planning Team will foster internal collaboration centered on comprehensive analysis and value assessment of intellectual property, promoting the strategic utilization of intangible assets. Furthermore, it will enhance intellectual property investment efficiency from a company-wide perspective, aiming to create and maximize added value.
