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Intellectual Property Strategy

At Itoki, in order to constantly adapt to changing times as lifestyles and work styles diversify with the times and continue to demonstrate its value in the market, we are actively engaged in intellectual property activities to acquire intellectual property rights for the unique problem-solving ideas and designs that are created in the value creation process, including research and development activities.

Intellectual property portfolio linked to management policy

We are strengthening the acquisition of intellectual property in the fields of Office 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and specialized facilities, which are key strategies in the new medium-term management plan. In recent years, we have focused on acquiring intellectual property related to hybrid work, which has seen a sharp increase due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are expanding intellectual property not only in products, but also in the fields of Office 2.0, which integrates space, and Office 3.0, which combines data and the office.
Additionally, in light of the amendments to the Design Act that came into effect in April 2019, we are also focusing on obtaining design rights in order to maximize the value we can provide through spatial design.

Intellectual Property Data

*The "YK value" is a patent technology competitiveness index created by Ichiro Kudo International Patent Office that measures the strength of a patent's monopoly exclusivity.

Promoting open patents

With the aim of contributing to the local community and increasing the motivation of our own inventors and development staff, we have been introducing patent seeds at intellectual property business matching events organized by local governments and other organizations and offering licenses since 2015. To date, we have expanded our activities to 36 prefectures and concluded nine license agreements.

TOPIC: "Nap Box" utilizing "open patent"

With the open patent owned by ITOKI as a catalyst, the standing nap box "giraffenap" by Hardwood Plywood Co., Ltd. was released in January 2024. It became a hot topic from the time of the license agreement and was featured in many media outlets both in Japan and overseas.

Hardwood Plywood Co., Ltd.
Representative Director
Mr. Yuya Yamaguchi

Above all, the biggest reason why "giraffenap" has attracted attention is none other than ITOKI's flexible imagination, which is the world's first "sleeping while standing". In addition, we were fortunate to be able to borrow the vibration test room at ITOKI's Shiga factory, which is rare in Japan for artificially creating various waveforms, in order to develop the "giraffenap, a nap box for sleeping while standing" using ITOKI's open patent, and to be able to shoot in ITOKI's office, which has a state-of-the-art office location, when creating the service site.

Planning Headquarters, Corporate Planning Division, Intellectual Property Promotion Office
Izumi Hashimoto

What I value in my intellectual property business matching efforts is to always approach interviews with the attitude of "a once-in-a-lifetime encounter." My encounter with Hardwood Plywood in Hokkaido led to the development of "giraffenap," and further led to its launch as a product that has attracted attention both domestically and internationally. I am very pleased that this is a successful example of this initiative. I was also able to see Hardwood Plywood's amazing development capabilities and management strategy up close, which was a very valuable learning opportunity for future efforts.

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