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Brands & Trademarks / Design & Design Rights

Brands & Trademarks

The Fujitsu Group considers our brand to be an important management resource as a direct connection to the key values of trust and empathy adopted under the Fujitsu Way, and we carry out brand promotion activities on a global scale. At the same time as protecting the value of the Fujitsu Group's brand through trademarks, the Intellectual Property Division has also established a monitoring process for trademark applications, trade names, and domain names in more than 190 countries and regions. Specifically, we are promoting the following three activities.

  1. Activities to support global business by respecting the trademark rights of others, minimizing risks, and securing the Fujitsu Group’s trademark rights.
  2. Activities to monitor and prevent counterfeit Fujitsu products, trademark applications, and trade name registrations that take advantage of our trademark "Fujitsu".
  3. In addition to the names of products and services, activities to protect the five Key Technologies as technology brands by means of trademark rights for the Key Technologies.

For example, we have applied for a trademark for Fujitsu Uvance, the brand of solutions for achieving sustainability transformation, with the aim of innovating organizational culture and bringing awareness of the Fujitsu Group to customers and to the society that exists beyond those customers, thus globally expanding our brand strategies.

We will also take resolute measures to prevent unauthorized use of trademarks, trade names, and domain names by third parties, including malicious third parties that pretend to be in a relationship with our company. In addition, upon discovering any infringement of our rights, we will take strong measures to protect against damage to the trust in the Fujitsu brand and to our corporate value.

Brand Value and Intellectual Property Management

As a result of our continued efforts to maintain and strengthen brand value, we have received praise from outside institutions. This praise includes being evaluated as 42nd in the Best Japan Brands 2022 rankings, published by the branding company Interbrand, with an increase in brand value to $1.07 billion, a year-on-year increase of 15%.

Quote：InterbrandInterbrand

Design & Design Rights

The Fujitsu Group considers design to be one of our most important management resources, and we employ the design mindset and methods in all of our business activities. In design creation, we place particular value on: Human Centered Design, which focuses on people; Sustainable Design, which aims to achieve a sustainable society that coexists with the global environment; and Universal Design, which strives to realize a society in which people can fully demonstrate their abilities, as well as one in which we can all lead safe, comfortable, and affluent lives.

In recent years, in addition to the design of hardware, there has been an increase in the importance of the design of screens that connect users with a service they are utilizing. For example, when providing services related to decarbonization of the supply chain, a screen design that visualizes data and presents it in a way that can be easily understood by the user will greatly affect the convenience of the service, namely, its added value. In other words, design plays a vital role in providing value to customers, which leads to the innovation of technological potential.

By strategically obtaining design rights created in the course of our business activities, the Fujitsu Group seeks to differentiate our services, while maintaining and reinforcing our competitive advantage, increasing the value we provide to customers, including usability.

Value Creation through Our Intellectual Property Mix Strategy

To create innovation from technology and value from innovation, an intellectual property strategy that integrates technology, design, and design rights is essential. The Intellectual Property Division not only acquires the rights for technology, the shape of hardware, and the design of screens, but also supports the advancement of social values of peace of mind, comfort, and prosperity to increase the impact of innovation by implementing our Intellectual Property Mix Strategy. This strategy combines the strengths of individual intellectual property rights, such as patent rights, design rights, and trademark rights, to create intellectual property rights.

Ontenna, Which Enables You to Feel Sound with Your Body and Enjoy It with Those around You

Ontenna is a sound perception device that was born from the developer’s desire to communicate sound to deaf people by leveraging design and technology. The device utilizes a user interface that converts sound in the range of 60–90 db into 256 levels of vibration and light intensity, enabling the user to feel the characteristics of the sound with their body. When Ontenna is worn like a hairpin or on the edge of a garment, it converts the audio pattern of the sensed sound in real time so that the user can enjoy the sound's attributes, such as the rhythm and pattern.

Ontenna's development began with a meeting between an engineering student and a deaf person. This engineering student, who went on to work with other deaf people to discover their needs through conversation, joined Fujitsu in 2016, when he took on the challenge of developing a new sound perception device. The developer then worked with Fujitsu designers and other engineers to determine how they could create a sound experience that deaf people and hearing people could enjoy together. Through trial and error, this mission led to the successful creation of Ontenna in 2017.

Multifaceted Protection under the Intellectual Property Mix Strategy
Ontenna has gently rounded edges and is lightweight so that the user can wear it like a hairpin without any discomfort. We have applied for and registered the design of the Ontenna controller (which controls the main body, battery charger, and multiple Ontenna), and the main body's shape is registered as a three-dimensional trademark. In addition, Ontenna's charging method and communication system are subject to patent applications and patent registration. In this way, the main body and peripheral devices of Ontenna are protected by the Intellectual Property Mix Strategy.

Innovation That Leads to the Creation of Social Value
To date, Ontenna has been distributed free of charge to over 80% of schools for the deaf throughout Japan, and it plays a major role in delivering sound to children at schools for the deaf through vibration and light during speech and rhythm exercises. Using Ontenna, students at a school for the deaf, who were generally very reticent to speak, have begun to speak actively, and they can feel the strength of drums and flutes during music recitals, as well as enjoy dancing with each other, communicating the rhythm and timing. Furthermore, Ontenna is an innovation that contributes to realizing an even more inclusive society from the perspective of creating opportunities for both deaf and hearing people to experience the ambiance of sports and cultural events, and to feel a sense of unity.

Ontenna has earned high accolades, winning the Gold Prize at Good Design Award 2019, the Grand Prize at IAUD International Design Award 2019, the Japan Patent Commissioner Encouragement Prize at Local Innovation Award 2020, and the Imperial Invention Prize from the 2022 National Commendation for Invention hosted by Japan Institute of Invention and Innovation for the design of a body-worn device that senses sound through vibration and light.

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