Intellectual Property Portfolio

The creation and utilization of our intellectual property portfolio of the five Key Technologies that are essential for our digital services are priorities in the Fujitsu Group's intellectual property management.

These five Key Technologies are Computing, which enables the processing of massive amounts of data; Network, which supports the use of data and computing power; AI, which supports simulations and decision-making using data; Data & Security, which maintains the safety of all of these; and Converging Technologies, which brings new value to people, organizations, and society by combining technology with humanities and social sciences that are needed when using digital technology. The Fujitsu Group's competitive advantage is not only having high technological capabilities in all the domains of these five Key Technologies but also the ability to connect and combine these technologies to provide digital services.

• Five Key Technologies

Going forward, we plan not only to create an excellent intellectual property portfolio by acquiring rights for the technology we develop but also to provide insight and knowledge gained from analyzing patent and market information in the planning stage of developing technology or offerings. We also plan to focus on initiatives for our capability to promote business portfolio strategies and the creation of new business models, such as participation in discussions about approaches to intellectual property appropriate for co-creation with customers, and open innovation with universities and research institutions.

Since its founding, the Fujitsu Group has made major shifts in its business pillars, from telegraph and telephone communications equipment; to computers (including servers and PCs); to information and communications technology (ICT) services that are at the center of creating core systems for corporations, government agencies, and local governments; and now to cloud-based service-oriented businesses that utilize digital technology.

This shift in the direction of management to services utilizing digital technology, which began in 2018, has changed our intellectual property portfolio. The percentage of the five Key Technologies making up the cumulative number of patents filed after 2018 increased by 9 percentage points, compared with the same number of patents between 2001 and 2017, following the acceleration of development in the domains of AI, Data & Security, and Converging Technologies, in addition to Network and Computing, in which we have held numerous technological assets as core technology since our founding.