Digital Solutions

IP Landscape Initiatives

1. Introduction

experiences. In these times when the societal image ofthe future is drastically changing, it is important tocontinuously consider and disseminate new values andoffensive intellectual property strategy. The main entity

have these values felt by the people throughout thein this initiative is the intellectual property divisionworld, and it was anticipated that intellectual property

within the company, but close coordination with thesuch as“service”,“solution”and“information data”

management, R&D division and business division iswould drive the future.

essential. As the degree of recognition of IP landscape

In June 2021, the Financial Services Agency and Tokyo

rises, services that provide external consultation andStock Exchange revised the Corporate Governance Codeanalysis software to support companies are seizing thisto include the description,“In view of the importance ofbusiness opportunity and starting to increase.

investment into human resources and IP, effective

Looking back on intellectual property strategies at thedirections should be taken to help sustainable growth ofnational level, first of all, the declaration by the Cabinet

companies by distribution of these and otherof Junichi Koizumi on Japan as a“Nation Built on

management resources and strategic implementation ofIntellectual Property”in 2002 to increase the creation,business portfolios”3）. With this, Intellectual Property

protection and exploitation of intellectual property（IP）

Strategy Headquarters at the Prime Minister’s Officesuch as patents and contents that have traditionallyand METI collaboratively established a“Study group on

been strong areas for Japan, to compete against the US

effective disclosure and governance of IP investment

who have increased their competitiveness by using ITand utilization strategy”from August 2021. At this（information technology）such as the Internet as astudy group, it was recognized that in a time where theweapon, and the rapid growth of Korea and China

management environment of companies is significantly

regarding manufacturing can be mentioned1）. At thatchanging with the recent advances in digitalization

time, the Intellectual Property Promotion Plan wasand going green, IP and intangible assets that areestablished as a national strategy, and the founding ofindispensable for a company’s management are

the IP High Court, and revision of the patent law relatedconsidered to be also drastically changing. Therefore, it

to inventions by employees were promoted at theis further required to accurately recognize how IP andnational level.

intangible assets can be utilized for sustainable

In June 2018, the government further announced

management of a company’s future”and“validate their“Aiming for a“value design society”, Intellectual

business model based on the importance of IP and2）

Property Strategy Vision” . This summarized a vision tointangible assets for management and it is unavoidable

direct the long-term developments and measures forto construct a strategy to maintain and strengthen IP

thirty years onwards from 2025 that utilize technology

and intangible assets that support competitiveness andsuch as AI and blockchain against the backdrop of ainvestigate a sustainable business model that utilizes thetransition from paying for physical goods to paying for

IP and intangible assets that are a strength upon firmly
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IP landscape is becoming widely recognized as anNo.42

IP Landscape Initiatives

understanding and analyzing why IP and intangible
assets are necessary for the company’s management and3. Investigation tool

what IP and intangible assets are the source ofIn this report, an example of an analysis method for IP

competitiveness and differentiation as a strength of thelandscape targeting PTFE is introduced.

company and how this leads to value creation and theMapping was conducted to allow a visual understanding

creation of cash flow”. This is the current situationof which technical areas have the most PTFE-related

where companies are even more expected to understandpatent applications（Figure1）. This technical classification

their own company and other companies’ strengths andwas prepared based on the international patent

weaknesses from the prospective of IP and investigate

classification designated by a global IP association andsustainable business models.

the number of patent applications for PTFE is displayedby the shade of the color. Red is the technical area with

2. What is IP landscape?

the most patent applications and grey is the technicalarea with the least patent applications.

Among these formulation and promotion of IP strategies

Technical Elements

at the national level, there is a growing movement todirectly utilize IP analysis in management and business.
Although many companies are now considering IP
landscape, since the target of IP landscape in each

Winter 2022

company is analysis handling confidential items such as
business strategy and R&D strategy of each company,
no company completely discloses its analysis process andresults, and many companies only disclose a summary.
The definition of IP landscape differs widely and thecontent of each company’s measures is varied because

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there is no set definition. Some major companies haveestablished a specialist team to actively handle this in an©Questel 2021
Figure1 Patent application technical classification for PTFE

organized manner, and there are some examples of

By using such figures, it is possible to visually andpublic announcements regarding the results, but it ismacroscopically understand the technical areas

extremely rare for a company to disclose detailed

regarding PTFE that are being focused upon and thosecontent such as introducing development cases ofthat are not. In addition, by focusing the analysis target

specific products and services.

on specific companies, it is also possible to understandIn this report, we define IP landscape as“analysis of IP

the PTFE-related fields that each company are focusing

information within the global market, observing

upon. Figure2 indicates the technological concepts that

customer needs, technological trends and the situation ofConcept Cluster

players in a multifaceted way to utilize it for searching
new markets and uses for products and developing new
businesses and products”. At Valqua, we are alreadyutilizing IP landscape for searching new uses andopening up new businesses and products, and promoting
the development of value-added products and services toresolve unknown issues in discussion with theDevelopment Division and Business Division.

©Questel 2021
Figure213

Technological concept mapping of PTFE

Digital Solutions

have patent applications and the target for PTFE
related patent groups.

4. Activities4-1）CX

This concept map groups the PTFE-related patent

Valqua has positioned 2021 as the starting year forapplications by concept and each group’s area iscorporate transformation（CX）, and promoted various

correlated with the number of patent applications.

initiatives. Not limiting ourselves to providing hardware,

Utilizing such concept maps, it is possible to understandbut placing the evolution into a H&S company thatthe details of individual patent contents such as thedelivers value-added service to customers as our basic

concepts that are receiving high attention or low

principle, we are promoting development activities forattention and unexpected concepts, and it is thought

our service technology products, that incorporate digitalthat this may lead to clues for searching new uses andsolutions, to be a trigger for innovative digitaldevelopments.

transformation for our customers’ total business.

Figure2 is a visualization of PTFE technology in general4-2）IP activities

helpful in understanding the strengths and weaknesses

We are placing an emphasis on IP landscape as part ofof those companies.

corporate transformation from the IP aspect. Patent

Figure3 shows a different analysis of PTFE patentapplication activities are conducted in new areas as aapplications. This is color-coded by technology clusters

result of searching for new value-added services andand the number of patent applications is indicated by

new product candidates through active utilization of thecontour lines. The larger the number of patent

IP landscape.

applications, the higher the contour lines. This figure also

IP landscape study tools have many features and theallows a macroscopic visualization of areas that haveanalysis tools are evolving daily. While enhancing themany patent applications. By preparing this type oftraining of staff to enable analysis according to their aim,

mapping for each year, it is also possible to understandwe work towards actively implementing the most recent

technical trends by time by seeing the sections thattools.

recently increased in height.

In May 2019, as part of open innovation, we announced
the establishment of the Cooperative ResearchLandscape by technology cluster

Laboratory for Advanced Functional Materials with
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and4）
Technology（AIST）. Valqua is conducting advanced

functional material development with AIST and we are
currently applying for patent applications regarding thetechnical results. Valqua is implementing IP landscapefor searching for uses of such materials and also
promoting ways to search for uses that would be atarget. Such initiatives will continue to be used actively
as a method to search for uses of seeds.
In addition, regarding the development of services thatconsider digital transformation（DX）, conducting IP
landscape should allow us to strengthen and promote
our main activities in the future by providing high value©Questel 2021
Figure3

Landscape of PTFE

added services that combine the areas that are Valqua’s
strength together with IT technology.
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and by focusing on specific companies, it could also be

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IP Landscape Initiatives

5. Conclusions
In this article, we introduced Valqua’s activities related

http://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/titeki/kettei/020703gaiyou.html
2）‌The Prime Minister’s Office, Intellectual Property

to IP landscape, but the content is limited because of theStrategy Visionneed for confidentiality. Valqua intends to work on

https://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/titeki2/kettei/

solutions that can provide ways to solve our customer’s

chizai_vision.pdf

issues by implementing value creation from a new3）‌Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters at theviewpoint, IP, in addition to technical development based

Prime Minister’s Office, Study group on effective

on our customer needs and on seeds that we havedisclosure and governance of IP investment andalways provided.

utilization strategy, reference
https://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/titeki2/tyousakai/

6. References

tousi_kentokai/pdf/corporate_governance.pdf
4）Valqua website

1）‌The Prime Minister’s Office, Main points of thehttps://www.valqua.co.jp/wpcontent/uploads/pdf/“Intellectual Property Strategy Outline”

press/pr190516.pdf

Winter 2022

Usui Nobuta
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DIVISION

No.4215