11 Reference Guidelines for Strategic Acquisition andManagement of Intellectual Property by Companies
In the global market environment of recent years, a company is required to recognize intellectual property inits business strategy as a source of its competitiveness and incorporate it into its business activities. By
conducting business under such policy, the company would be able to strengthen its competitiveness andmaximize profitability and corporate value. However, in Japan, there are concerns that few companies have top
management that is formulating business strategy, R&D strategy and intellectual property strategy as a triune
unity and strategically acquiring and managing intellectual property.
In this study, in accordance with the direction of the Intellectual Property Policy Outline, in order to obtainbasic information applicable in developing “reference guidelines” that a company may refer to in designing a
program for global strategic acquisition and management of intellectual property, we conducted a comparison ofpatent registrations in the United States by Japanese, American and European companies and a quantitative
analysis of the relation between the number of Japanese patent registrations and the profitability of Japanesecompanies. Based on such actual data, we made an analysis and study about how strategic acquisition andmanagement of intellectual property should be designed and implemented.

Ⅰ Introduction

efficiency and enhance its corporate value.

As for the acquisition and management ofintellectual property by companies in Japan, as
compared with the cases of companies in Europe
and the United States, there are concerns thatfewer companies are dealing with intellectual
property strategically. In addition, the Intellectual
Property Policy Outline contains instructions todevelop reference guidelines for companies toformulate their own strategic programs on global
acquisition and management of intellectual
property.
This study aims to obtain basic information
applicable in developing reference guidelines(hereunder, “Reference Guidelines for Acquisition
and Management”) for domestic companies to refer
to when formulating their own strategic programs.

(1) Positioning of Intellectual Property Strategy
in Corporate Management
In order to incorporate intellectual property
into the business strategy as the source ofcompetitiveness of the company and utilize it for its
business operations, it is necessary to establish an
intellectual property strategy that is unified withbusiness strategy and R&D strategy. Meanwhile, as
can be seen in the TRIPS Agreement and others,
strengthening of the protection of intellectual
property has been a worldwide trend. Furthermore,
it is also required to develop a system that enables
a company to technologically innovate for thecreation of new businesses or markets and copewith strengthened protection of intellectual
property.
To respond to these requirements, it is vitalthat inventions attained through intellectuallycreative work are properly protected as intellectual
property. That will work to improve thecompetitiveness of products and services.
(2) Efficiency of R&D
Regarding the relation between R&D andJapan’s competitiveness, according to the OECD(*1)
data(*2) comparing the 1980s and 1990s, contrary toother developed countries on a macro-basis, therate of technological progress has decreased
remarkably in Japan, in spite of increased
investment in R&D. This implies that Japan as awhole has been unsuccessful in improving R&D
efficiency in spite of the requirements of this era inwhich high quality R&D is necessary for copingwith intensified global market competition andstrengthened intellectual property protection.

Ⅱ Background to Developing Reference
Guidelines for Acquisition andManagement
1Intellectual Property
Management

andBusiness

In the market environment characterized
by globally intensifying market competition,
expanding opportunities for technologicalinnovation such as IT or biotechnology, andstrengthening
worldwide
protectionofintellectual property, a company must
establish an intellectual property strategy thatis unified with its business strategy and R&D
strategy in order to be able to improve R&D(*1) Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development(*2) Science, Technology and Industry Outlook Special edition 2001(OECD)
P.54
(*3)

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Further, on a micro basis, from the study on thecorrelation(*3) between R&D expenses and ROE(*4)(Return on Equity) for each year in Japan, it has
been pointed out that, in the 1990s, R&D efficiency
had a great effect on corporate profitability. Thisimplies that the correlation between R&D
efficiency and corporate profitability has increased
from the 1990s on, and that improved R&D
efficiency will bring higher profitability. Meanwhile,it has also been pointed out that R&D efficiency has
decreased for each company.(*5)(3) Comparison of R&D expenses and patentapplications made by trilateral countries
or regions
Comparing the R&D expenses(*6) of majorcountries in 1998, the figure for the United States
was more than double that of Japan, and the figure
for Europe was about one and a half times that ofJapan. There are also data(*7) indicating thatJapanese companies, while they have many
Japanese patents, have much less foreign patents.
2

Reference Guidelines for Acquisition andManagement and the Intellectual Property
Policy Outline

The Reference Guidelines for Acquisition
and Management is not supposed to be amanual for intellectual property departments
but will be designed, in accordance with theIntellectual Property Policy Outline, as
reference guidelines for management ofcorporation to incorporate intellectual property
in management strategy.
The Intellectual Property Policy Outline
indicated as a task of the Ministry of Economy,
Trade and Industry that “with the aim of enablingcompanies to increase profit and maximize
corporate value by considering intellectual property
as a source of competitiveness in their management
strategy and to design a strategic program forobtaining and managing intellectual property basedon a global strategy, the GOJ will design reference
guidelines by the end of FY 2002, taking the actual
conditions of individual companies into account.”(*8)

In response to the above-mentioned task, theReference Guidelines for Acquisition andManagement was prepared as reference guidelinesthat take the actual conditions of individualcompanies into account so that each company candesign such a strategic program. Therefore, theReference Guidelines for Acquisition andManagement is not a manual on acquisition andmanagement for the intellectual property personnelof a company. Rather, its contents and construction
are designed to be read by the company’s
management. Therefore, it is hoped that eachcompany will design a strategic program under the
direction of its management.

Ⅲ Purpose and Need of Commitment
by Companies
1

Need of “Selection and Concentration”

How a company conducts “selection andconcentration” of its business is a key to its
competitiveness,and“selection
andconcentration” in a business is closely related
to R&D strategy or intellectual property
strategy. Consequently, the top management of
a company is expected to formulate a businessstrategy while giving full consideration to thesituations of related R&D and intellectual
property.
(1) “Selection and concentration” of business
Since the 1990s, while Japanese economic
growth has slowed down, it is true that some
excellent companies have continued to be highly
competitive, and have attained high profitability.(*9)
It is considered that the first step to being such an
excellent company is for each company to foreseechanges in the market environment and specify its
business domain based on a judgment on its
strength. Then, a management decision toconcentrate its management resources on thebusiness domain so specified (selected) is
important.

(3*) Report of Study on R&D Correlation Analysis (Daiichi Kangin Research Institute, Mar 2001) P. 53(4*) ROE is an indicator for how efficiently capital has been used to produce profit. The formula is “net income divided bystockholder’s equity.” The ROE of Japanese companies averaged 10% formerly but has been on downward trend in recent
years. On the other hand, the figure for US companies has been on upward trend and the difference between Japan and theUnited States is increasing.
(5*) Kiyonori Sakakibara “Deteriorating Efficiency of R&D” TEIKUOFU (All Nippon Airways, Summer 2002, No. 99) P. 18;
Michikazu Murakami “Innovation Management invoked by the Sense of Crisis” WORKS (Recruit, No.37, 1999/12-2000/1)
P. 11.
(6*) Main Science & Technology Indicators (MSTI) database, Economic Analysis & Statistics (EAS), Economics
Analysis/Statistics Section, OECD(7*) WIPO Statistics (1999)(8*) “Intellectual Property Policy Outline” (Strategic Council on Intellectual Property, 2002/7/3) P. 36(9*) “Study on Japanese Excellent Companies” (Research Institute of Economy, Trade & Industry, 2002/6) listed in P. 1 are,Toyota Motor, Canon, Kao, Mabuchi Motor, Shin-etsu Chemical, Nintendo, Yamato Transport, Shimano, Honda Motor as
having ROA value higher than the industry average.
● 83 ●IIP Bulletin 2003

(2) “Selection and concentration” of R&D
and intellectual property
Considering that, to implement the selection
and concentration of a business, the selection andconcentration of R&D and intellectual property isalso necessary, we wanted to form a picture of thecurrent intellectual property strategies of Japanesecompanies, and, based on the available data, wemade the following analysis:(i) Analysis of corporate intellectual property
strategy using data on patents obtained in the
United States
In order to shed light on the differences in
intellectual property strategies of individualcompanies, we plotted the number of U.S. patentregistrations for each of patent classification
number,(*10) making comparison of Japanese andforeign companies that are considered to be in acompeting relationship in each industry. That is, weplotted the total patent registration numbers from1997 to 2001 for each class of U.S. patentclassification number.
As the results, the peaks on the chart differeddepending on the industry. As a whole, it could beobserved that companies with high profitability
tend to have the peaks in particular technical fields.
Further, the number of patents necessary to protect
a product is small for single technology industries(mainly, material industries like pharmaceuticals,
chemistry, glass, and others), but tends to be larger
for multiple technology industries (mainly
IT/machinery industry such as electronics,
business machines and others).
(ii) Analysis of R&D efficiency and intellectual
property strategy based on the number ofJapanese patent registrations
As mentioned above, on a micro basis, R&D
efficiency had a greater effect on corporate
profitability in the 1990s. Therefore, in order toobtain a comparative analysis of the correlation
between R&D efficiency and intellectual property
strategy of each company, we plotted for eachcompany “the number of patents divided by R&D
expenses” on the horizontal scale and “operating
profits divided by the number of patents” on thevertical scale, which are the “operating profits
divided by R&D expenses” factored by the numberof Japanese patents
This analysis, while having the weakness of
not eliminating other factors affecting operating
profits, revealed that, as an overall tendency, while
the number of patents per R&D expense is low for
single technology industries, companies with highquality patents have higher operating profits per
R&D expenses. On the other hand, while operating
profits per patent is generally low for multiple
technology industries, companies with a large
number of patents tend to have higher operating

profits per R&D expenses.
2Intellectual Property Strategy as Businessand R&D strategy

Business strategy, R&D strategy andintellectual property strategy are to be
formulated as a triune unity strategy. In otherwords, an important point for future business
management will be that a company makes
effective use of its intellectual property informulating its business strategy and R&D
strategy, and utilizes intellectual property
effectively to protect the core competence ofits business.
The objective that future intellectual property
management is encouraged to focus on is attaining
and keeping the competitive edge of the businessby having a closer relationship with businessstrategy and R&D strategy. Additionally, since thedegree of importance of intellectual property
strategy may differ depending on individualcompanies, it is important for a company torecognize intellectual property strategy properly as
an item for discussion in formulating its businessstrategy. It should also be firmly kept in mind that if
the measures taken from the standpoint ofintellectual property are inadequate, the company
could be forced to withdraw from its business.
Therefore, it is important that before the top
management of a company formulates andimplements a business strategy and an R&D
strategy, it should have a good understanding of thestatus of intellectual property not only of thecompany but also of other companies.
3

Companies the Reference Guidelines for
Acquisition and Management is Directed
to and its Application

The companies the Reference Guidelines
for Acquisition and Management is directed to
are those that want to strengthen theircompetitiveness by creating a new business ormarket based on their technology, and theReference
Guidelines
will
take
into
consideration the difference between single
technology and multiple technology industries.
The incorporation of intellectual property
strategy into business strategy should not betreated in a uniform way across all industries.
Rather, a strategic program for acquisition andmanagement of intellectual property should first be
worked out, while taking into consideration thecharacteristics of each company or industry, andthen implemented. Although intellectual property
strategy is considered to apparently differ according
to the type of business, the point is what(*10) Aspen Law & Business, Patent Intelligence and Technology Report (2002)

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technology to make use of to create a new businessand market. Therefore, while this report focuses onmatters common to industries, it will refer also to
the differences in intellectual property strategy
among different kinds of businesses or industries,that is, the difference between single technology
and multiple technology industries.
4

Scope of Intellectual Property to be
Considered

The Reference Guidelines for Acquisition
and Management will first focus on theacquisition and management of patents andthen refer to the checkpoints for trade secrets.
Further, as for design patent, trademark rightand copyright, although points applicablemutatis mutandis will be clarified for each ofthese measures, the point is how effectively
each intellectual property is exploited for
expanding the business domain.
It is necessary to have a perspective thatenables the company to select the most suitable
intellectual property to protect the results of its
R&D, which will lead to the expansion of its
business domain.

Ⅳ Measures for Each Company’s
Reference
1

Formulation
Strategy

of

Basic

Principle

and

It is important for top management toclearly indicate a management policy thatplaces importance on intellectual property.
(1) Clear indication of management policy
placing importance on intellectual property
It is important for top management itself topresent the basic principle that places importanceon intellectual property, and share it with people
not only of its own company but also of groupcompanies, customers or other businessconnections including those overseas. It isinconceivable that a company would be able tostrengthen its competitiveness based on
intellectual property without a basic principle ofrespecting its own rights and those of othercompanies.
It is also important that a company includes in
its basic principles on acquisition and managementof intellectual property, c the basic position on
giving licenses to other companies, and, d thebasic position of requiring respect for the rights
when there is an infringement of the company’s
rights, and present them as the “Basic Principles
on Intellectual Property,” which will indicate, both
inside the company and externally, the company’s

basic position of placing importance on intellectual
property.
(2) Formulating intellectual property strategy
based on management policy
It is important to make clear the intellectual
property strategy or the strategy of acquisition andmanagement of intellectual property under the
direction of top management and based on the basic
principle or management policy. It is also importantto formulate intellectual property strategy as anintegral part of the business strategy or R&D
strategy based on the long-term management policy,
and then for each business target to work out andimplement an individual intellectual property
strategy from the short-term standpoint, modifying
it from time to time in accordance with changes inthe environments for continuing implementation
2

Formulation of Business Strategy and
R&D Strategy based on Intellectual
Property Rights

Information on intellectual property canbe a valuable and important tool in formulating
corporate R&D strategy or business strategy
such as an analysis of technological strength,
selection of R&D themes, business alliancewith other companies or M&A, etc. Therefore,
it is contemplated that the intellectual
property department working closely with thebusiness department, the R&D department
and other related departments will lead tobusiness management with intellectual
property as the core of the business.
(1) Coordination with business strategy
While the “selection and concentration” ofbusiness is required in order to improve corporate
profitability, it is important to promote “selection
and concentration” of intellectual property as well.
That is, it is important to investigate effective
acquisition of intellectual property from various
angles.
(i) Coordination from the standpoint of protecting
company productsc Promoting patent acquisition from thestandpoint of protecting developed company
products in the market in parallel with market
research and product planningd Foreseeing alternative technologies andpromoting patent acquisition that could exclude
alternative products to prevent other companies
from entering the market with such alternatives
e Promoting patent acquisition on peripheraltechnologies such as manufacturing apparatus or
the production method of company products,
forming a group of patents protecting the products.
f Promoting patent acquisition also in countries
where production of the product is expected orcountries where the product is going to be● 85 ●IIP Bulletin 2003

marketed.
(ii) Coordination from the standpoint of copingwith other company’s patentsc Making a survey of intellectual property
applications and acquisitions by other companies,
getting information on patent applications orpatents acquired by other companies on the productto be developed, and gaining understanding of thestrength and weakness of the company and analyze
the intellectual property position of the company, inparallel with market research and product planningd Evaluating the validity of a patent application
or a registered patent owned by another company ifsuch application or patent exists
e Investigating if it is possible to technically
circumvent a patent application highly likely to beregistered or a registered patent owned by othercompany if such application or patent exists
f If it is impossible to technically circumvent it,
studying whether to try to invalidate it, take alicense, have it transferred or give up thedevelopment.
(2)
Coordination with R&D strategy
Information on intellectual property of thecompany or rival companies would be highly useful
in formulating the business strategy or R&D
strategy or for analyzing the technological strengthof the company. Coordination from the standpoint ofprotecting company products and coordination fromthe standpoint of coping with other company’s
patents are to be carried out in accordance with thestage of R&D, such as basic research, applied ordevelopment research or product development.
(3) Coordination of business strategy, R&D
strategy and intellectual property strategy
For the sake of the triune unity activity ofbusiness strategy, R&D strategy and intellectual
property strategy, coordinated relationships should
be developed at every level from top management
to the persons in charge of each strategy.
3

Organizing System for Acquisition andManagement within Company

It is important to set up an internalorganizational system for an efficient
implementation of strategic acquisition andmanagement of intellectual property withclear definitions of responsibility.
(1) Setting up an organizational system(i) Involvement of top management in decision
making concerning intellectual property
activities and construction of relatedorganization
It requires managerial judgment to clearly
incorporate intellectual property strategy intobusiness strategy and actually implement it.
Therefore, it is required to construct anorganization (counseling body) such as a

IIP Bulletin 2003

management council directly attached to the top
management to decide on corporate strategy or
policy, and then to set up an organizational systemthat will implement the corporate business strategy
or R&D strategy in accordance with management
decisions after full investigation of these strategies
from the standpoint of intellectual property.
(ii) Construction of organization and system
The construction of a flexible personnel andorganizational system that will facilitate realizing
coordination within each department or among
related departments, and also budgetary
distribution, are important to respond to theenvironmental changes of the time such as shorterproduct lifecycles and implement business strategy,
R&D strategy and intellectual property strategy asa triune unity strategy.
(iii) Positioning of intellectual property department
With the differences in scales of businesses
and characteristics of industries etc., the idealorganizational system for properly implementing
the acquisition and management of corporate
intellectual property may differ for each individualcompany. Therefore, it is important to investigate
how the intellectual property department should
work in the corporate organization and set out aclear description on this.
A corporate intellectual property department
could bear the function of coordinating interests ofbusiness divisions or group companies from thecorporate standpoint, as well as other overall
controlling functions, and also look after problems
that relate to corporate level interests that are
difficult for an individual business division to handle.
In addition, it could bear the function of taking
action on infringements of rights by othercompanies, and brand management.
(2) Intellectual Property Management underGroup Management
In the case of intellectual property
management under group management, it isimportant to try to increase the combined
intellectual property strength through the synergy
effect of group companies as a whole. The
intellectual property department could play animportant role of formulating the intellectual
property strategy or coordinating the interests ofbusiness divisions from the standpoint of groupmanagement.
(3) Acquisition and management of intellectual
property under global management
Foreign patent applications are expected to
grow more than ever in the future in line with theprogress of globalization of Japanese companies. To
cope with this trend, it will be necessary to have an
intellectual property department that can deal withforeign intellectual property systems, and it isconsidered important for the intellectual property
department to become actively involved in decision
making on overseas business strategy.

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(4) Thorough risk management(i) Risk management in business process
It is necessary from the point of risk
management to think ahead about possible effects
on corporate management when a company has
infringed an intellectual property right of another or
its intellectual property right has been infringed byanother. It is important to conduct a survey of
infringing acts on its intellectual property rights,
e.g. by investigating products or productadvertisements of other companies, not only within
the intellectual property department but also
company-wise through joint efforts with otherdepartments that are collecting information onother companies’ products on regular basis such as
the sales department or R&D department. As forrights of other companies, it is important to makeefforts not to infringe them by collecting
information on a regular basis, e.g. by watchingpatent publications and sharing intellectual
property information within the company.
(ii) Constructionofsystemtoprevent
infringement overseas
The damage incurred from infringements ofintellectual property rights in overseas markets isserious.(*11) Therefore, it is important for a company
to construct a system to prevent infringements ofintellectual property rights in overseas markets andkeep its overseas business from being adversely
affected. Since actions towards the government
may also be needed, the planning for collecting
information or taking actions in this regard, should
not be handled only by the intellectual property
department, but should be conducted byconstructing a corporate level system that includes
the top management of the company.
4

Effective Implementation of Acquisition
and Management

In order to utilize intellectual property asa source of competitiveness of the company, it
is important to have a strategy for each stageof acquisition, management and exploitation,etc. Additionally, recruiting and fostering
intellectual property department staff tosupport these activities is important.

(1) Acquisition(i) Securing information
In order to protect the R&D results of thecompany by securing intellectual property rights forthem, conducting acquiring activities based on theknowledge of the level and trend of the technologyof the company and its rivals is important. For
securing information on intellectual property, it isimportant to make effective use of the Industrial
Property Digital Library (IPDL) of the Japanese
Patent Office. Further, for information obtained by
the members of the company, it is important toenhance the environment that will enable the whole
company, including top management, businessdivisions and other related departments, to sharethe information, thus building up a system thatfacilitates investigation from a broad perspective.
(ii) Establishing policy for making applications
For making patent applications, etc., it isimportant to establish a policy for making
applications based on the principle of “selection andconcentration,” i.e. evaluating the necessity ofobtaining rights, and to have a clear criterion of
judgment at the time of making a patent application,etc. The judgment of making a patent application or
making a request for examination should not bemade by the business division, the R&D
department or the intellectual property department
alone, but should be made by multiple departments
including the sales or marketing department, while
taking into consideration the evaluation(*12) fromeach perspective. In addition, efforts should bemade to obtain a group of patents on company
technology including peripheral technology toprotect company products for the sake of adequate
protection of company technology by theintellectual property system.
In addition to making patent applications, itwould also help to reduce to documents theinformation to be protected including trade secrets
and contracts on technology. Especially with small
and medium enterprises, there are cases in which
intellectual property is left infringed because it is
not documented. It is important for a company tohave measures studied in advance to preserve its
intellectual property.(*13)(iii) Policy for foreign applications
The policy for making foreign applications(*11) Indicating actual damage are EU European Commission “Battle with counterfeit and pirated goodsc” “CIPIC Journal”(Customs Intellectual Property Information Center of Japan Tariff Association, Vol.122 2002) P. 53, Japan External Trade
Organization(JETRO)
Beijing
CenterIntellectual
Property
Officehome
page(http://www.jetro-pkip.org/tjlw/2001xzh.htm), (http://www.jetro-pkip.org./wtdc/ 2003/200301. htm), Hidaka Kenji“’Factory for the World,’: Its Fiction and Reality” “Chizai Kanri” (Japan Intellectual Property Association, Vol.52 No.8
2002) P. 1157(*12) An example of factors to be evaluated are “Indicators for evaluation of patents (for technology transfer)” (Japan Patent
Office, 2002/12). The indicators are intended to be used as indicators regarding the possibility of technology transfer for apatent and the like, but can be applied to such evaluation.
(*13) The Ministry of Economy, trade and Industry has prepared the Guidelines for the Management of Trade Secrets as theReference Guidelines for companies to refer to in designing strategic programs to strengthen the management of theirtrade secrets. (http://www.meti.go.jp/policy/competition/
downloadfiles/ip/030130guideline.pdf)● 87 ●IIP Bulletin 2003

should be clearly set out while taking into
consideration exploitation of rights and cost-benefit
performance. The judgment should be made, with
the involvement of top management, along the lineof overseas business strategy and R&D strategy,
and taking into consideration, c the market ofcompany products, d the location of the production
base of the company and those of other companies,e the export countries and potential markets, f
the relation with the long-term business strategy.
(2) Management and exploitation(i) Management of intellectual property
It is necessary to make efforts to reduce thecost of maintenance or management of intellectual
property rights by periodically taking inventory ofpending and acquired intellectual property and stop
the payment of patent fees for inventions judged
unnecessary. On this occasion also, as it is at thetime of making applications, it is important that thedecision be made not only by the intellectual
property department, the business or R&D
department alone, but rather be made based on theevaluation by multiple departments including thesales or marketing department and others that arealso in the position to foresee future business.
(ii) Exploitation of intellectual property
The main objectives of exploitation of
intellectual property are securing exclusive rights
to implement the invention, keeping othercompanies from coming into the market withcompeting products and maintaining thecompetitive edge of the company’s business in themarket.(*14) It is important that licensing to othercompanies or cross-licensing be made only afterdue consideration of securing freedom of businessor R&D for the company. Licensing should be madethrough integral corporate management judgmentwith due consideration given to possible effects to
its business, and the construction of anorganizational system to sustain such deliberation
is important.
(iii) Introduction of trade secrets
Upon introduction of trade secrets, e.g. by alicense agreement for the technology of anothercompany, there will quite likely be improvements ofthe technology or a fusion with related technologies,
thereby obscuring the scope of technology under
the confidentiality obligation. Therefore, a position
that will not allow easy disclosure of confidential
information is necessary, aside from, looking into
the future, that information that is consideredhighly necessary for the business, and, whenintroducing a trade secret, it is required to conduct
careful negotiations and considerations of thecontract language to secure the freedom of thecompany’s original R&D activities as much as
possible.

(3) Fostering and securing human resources(i) Fostering and securing top management
It is important to foster and secure humanresources for top management and technology
management that can be responsible for andmanage each business strategy, R&D strategy andintellectual property strategy, and that canparticipate in business judgments from thestandpoint of intellectual property strategy on theoccasion of corporate decision making, e.g. at board
meetings.
(ii) Fostering and securing inventor andintellectual property personnel
It is important to foster and secure
researchers with an awareness of intellectual
property, and intellectual property personnel thatcan make patent applications useful for the businessdevelopment of the company or prevent
infringement of other companies’ patents. It is also
important to treat employee inventors properly inaccordance with the degree of contribution to thebusiness.
(iii) Fostering and securing agents
It is important to foster and secure agents
such as lawyers or patent attorneys, both domestic
and foreign, who can deal with broad international
intellectual property assignments. It is also
important to create a long-term relationship of trustwith the agents, adequately sharing with them theintellectual property strategy of the company. For
overseas operations, it is important to secure plural
agents for a country in case of possible conflicts ofinterest. Further, another important standpoint is toconduct regular evaluation of the agents and deal
with them in accordance with their ability andachievements.
(iv) Recruitment of external staff
As for human resources, another item to beconsidered is recruiting intellectual property staff
from other departments of the company or fromoutside the company those with good knowledge of
R&D activities, with the qualification of patent
attorney or with reasonable competence in aparticular academic field.
5

Thorough Follow -up and Review

It is important to regularly examine policyon acquisition and management of intellectual
property or its specific implementation status,
and to construct a follow-up system, bycooperation among related departments, thatis effectively workable to cope with the
problems that may be found through theexamination.
(1) Construction of follow-up system(*14) Introducing an enforcing strategy for patents is, “Patent Enforcement for Industry Activation” (Japan Patent Office, 1999)
P. 123

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After the intellectual property strategy isformulated for the selected business based on thepolicy of “selection and concentration,” a
corporate-wide follow-up should be conducted
regarding whether the strategy has been
implemented.
(2) Reviewing (evaluation)(i) Evaluation of intellectual property
It is important to conduct an evaluation activity
from the standpoint of how intellectual property has
benefited the corporate business. Therefore, it isimportant to conduct a multifaceted evaluation not
only by the measure of the amount of income fromlicensing but also by the measure of the sales
amount of the products based on the technology
protected by intellectual property or othermeasures.
(ii) Evaluationofintellectual
property
department’s activities
Evaluation of the activities of the intellectual
property department and the agents is also
important. The intellectual property activities
within a company include not only making
applications and conducting searches but alsoplanning intellectual property strategy linked with
future business strategy and R&D strategy, andthese activities should also be appreciated as added
value of the intellectual property activities.
6

Reviews by Top Executive

In order to make sure that the basic policyon acquisition and management of intellectual
property continues to be proper, reasonable
and effective, it is important for the top
executive of an organization to examine andreview the basic policy or its specificimplementation status on regular basis.
(1) Periodical review
It is important for the top executive of anorganization, to require periodical reports, examine
the basic policy and actual implementation andreview them as often as necessary.
(2) Documentation
As for by whom and how often the follow-up
activity should be conducted, it is recommendable
to make a rule on it and document this, so that thepolicy of the top management is understoodproperly throughout the company.
(Researcher：Atsushi Mizuno)● 89 ●IIP Bulletin 2003