The Nippon Steel Group respects intellectual property rights, regardless of whether they belong to us or others. We will make the most of the intellectual property rights in our business activities, and position them as one of the important factors for obtaining business revenue now and in the future.

Policy and organization of intellectual property activities

Policy on intellectual property activities

We perform intellectual property (IP) activities under the company-wide slogan, “IP is the source of our corporate activities. Maximize corporate value through enhanced protection management and active utilization.” We are strengthening efforts to directly link IP created from R&D activities, which are implemented based on management strategies, to maximizing business earnings and corporate value.

Based on a specific business strategy and this slogan, we formulate and act on a flexible and effective IP strategy in accordance with all aspects (offensive and defensive) of individual products and technologies, and share the results throughout the Company in an effort to continuously strengthen our strategies. We are also focusing on the acquisition of rights for IP generated in the development of technologies and products that realize carbon neutrality. Moreover, we are involved in licensing IP outside the Group and in standardization to form the market rules, and uses IP in a variety of ways to advance its business. As shown in the table below, we are working to complete our Medium- to Long-term Management Plan by actively utilizing our IP.

Promotion system of IP activities

Business divisions take the lead in making a trinity of management strategy, R&D strategy, and intellectual property strategy, and then carry out specific intellectual property activities. These activities are supported by the Intellectual Property Division. In addition, the Intellectual Property Division is actively involved in management from a traversing perspective regarding intellectual property activities that span business divisions. After discussing the progress of these activities at the company-wide meeting and determining the direction of how to proceed with intellectual property activities, the final decision is made by the Corporate Policy Committee and the Board of Directors. In addition, the results of discussion in the Corporate Policy Committee and the Board of Directors are fed back to the business divisions and people involved in the inventions to strengthen the daily intellectual property activity. Further, through continuous information management and intellectual property training, we are improving the awareness and skills of all the employees related to intellectual property.

Securing creation and enhancing protection and utilization of IP

We have been focusing on enriching and accumulating our IP in terms of both quality and quantity to enhance their strategic utilization in all aspects of our business. Specifically, we thoroughly manage technical information related to research results obtained through our independent research and collaboration with universities and external research institutes, and secure and accumulate IP that can be used in our business activities.

We secure the most advanced newly created technologies and other proprietary technologies such as carbon neutral related technologies, as IP through the patent acquisition and tacit knowledge of know-how we have accumulated. We utilize them in the course of our business practices and contribution to society in line with our Medium- to Long-term Management’s Plan. For three consecutive years, we have been awarded the National Commendation for Invention, which recognizes outstanding inventions aimed at contributing to the advancement of science and technology and the development of industry.

Value of our patents

The Nippon Steel Group holds a high share of patents in major global markets compared to its competitors in Japan and overseas.

LexisNexis “PatentSight™” provides a patent value index PAI (Patent Asset Index™) based on the technical value and market value of patents. The PAI data in 2023 shows that Nippon Steel has a relatively higher value than our domestic and overseas competitors. We carefully evaluate domestic and international patent applications in line with our management strategy. At the same time, we continue to expand and accumulate important patents in terms of both quality and quantity, thereby increasing our valuable patent portfolio in Japan and overseas, which not only supports our business revenues in the world but also contributes to social, economic and industrial developments.

*Calculated using PatentSight™, a patent analysis tool of LexisNexis.
Comprehensive evaluation index of patent calculated by multiplying “technical value” calculated based on the number of citations of patents and “market value” calculated based on the country of application for patents with valid legal status (patents pending and granted).

Initiatives for standardization

Based on our IP strategy, we utilize IP created through R&D and business activities by combining confidentiality, patenting, standardization, and publication.

Regarding the standardization, we participate in internal activities related to quality assurance, safety, environment, and disaster prevention, as well as external activities related to JIS, ISO, API, etc., and actively standardize steel materials and material testing methods. We have established sustainability standards for steelmaking and rules for the markets for products of our company and our competitors. We seek to make our efforts lead to sales expansion of our new products, thereby contributing to management, and to form and expand markets targeted by the steel industry. In the automotive steel sheet and materials field, our employee has been appointed as the Chair of the Ductility Testing Committee ISO/TC 164/SC 2, leading the standards activities. In the field of steel products for oil and gas development and production environments, our employees promoted standardization of OCTGs and received the 2024 AMPP Fellow Honor Award from the American Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP) in recognition of their achievements.