Intellectual Property Report

Tokyo Electron devotes a great deal of effort into

Contribution of License-Related Activities

developing technologies to bolster the competitivenessIntellectual property acquired by filing applications andof its products. Without protection of its intellectual

securing rights for the Company’s proprietary products andproperty rights, however, the Company would not be

development technologies are primarily effective not as

able to lay claim to those independently developed

source of income from licensing to competitors and othertechnologies and products as proprietary assets. It iscompanies, but as a method of differentiating our products

precisely the integration of our intellectual property

and technologies and achieving a competitive advantage.

strategy with its technology and product strategies thatallows the Company to realize maximum benefit fromTechnology for the semiconductor and FPD fields are

its development efforts. Accordingly, the Company has

becoming increasingly advanced and sophisticated. To

positioned intellectual property strategy as one of its

efficiently develop new products incorporating leading-edge

most important strategies. To enable us to effectively

technologies, and launch them quickly to the market, it isuse superior technologies of other companies and ouressential to effectively utilize all available intellectual

products to market quickly, the Company places a highproperties, whether the Company’s or those of otherpriority on license-in activities.

companies.

Policies on Acquiring and Managing Intellectual
Property, Managing Trade Secrets, and Preventing
Technology Leakage
The Company has a set of internal rules that define themanagement of its intellectual property. The Company’s
procedures for acquiring and managing intellectual property
are on a comparable level to those mentioned in thePolicies Regarding the Acquisition and Management ofIntellectual Properties issued by the Ministry of Economy,
Trade and Industry of Japan.
According to these rules, the Company provides incentives
for inventors and creators within the Company. We
established awards to honor inventors and creators andpays lump-sum payments at the time of submission orregistration of applications for patents, utility model rights,
designs and others. Bonuses are also issued as incentives
if these creations are implemented at the Company andbonuses scaled to their earning record if such licenses andother rights are sold outside.
Management of trade secrets is handled according to theCompany’s “Internal rules on Managing Technology andMarketing Information” and its “Manual for managing
Technology and Marketing Information.” The provisions ofthese documents are similar to those of the government’s
Policies Regarding Managing Trade Secrets and Policies
Regarding the Prevention of Technology Leakage.

16Tokyo Electron

www.tel.com

Along with the globalization of production bases foremphasizing the filing of applications for intellectual

semiconductors and flat panel displays, the Company isproperty rights in countries around the world.

Number of Patent Applications
Applications(Overseas)

Applications(Domestic)

500

1,000

400

800

300

600

200

400

100

200001998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

U.S.
South Korea
TaiwanJapanEurope
ChinaIntellectual Property by Major Country (at March 31, 2004)

PatentJapan

U.S.

Korea

TaiwanChina

Germany

France

Other

Total

2,453

1,875

772

969

19103

57

350

6,598

Utility Model

6402406000112

Design156

6299

59

412744165

653

Trade markTotal

196

25

37

65

21

1615274

649

2,869

1,962

910

1,133

87

146

116

789

8,012

Efficient Acquisition of Intellectual Property Rights

proportion of elite patents in its U.S. patent portfolio during

According to the Japanese Patent Office, the approval rate

the five-year period from 1996 to 2000. An elite patent isfor patents filed by the Company in 2001 was 73.9%,

the one that ranks in the top 5% of the most frequently

ranking 10th highest in Japan.

cited patents in its technological field. This ranking reflects
the efficient acquisition of rights for superior patents, which

Furthermore, according to a survey by CHI Research Inc., ais contributing to strengthen the Company’s globalU.S. intellectual property asset research company, thecompetitiveness.

Company ranked No. 1 in the world for the highest

Annual Report 200417