Respect for and protection of intellectual property

Policy

The Group will protect and respect intellectual property and manage information assets appropriately and strictly.

Awareness of Issues

The Shin-Etsu Group believes intellectual property such as products and technologies developed in-house are important information assets and they need to be controlled strictly. At the same time, we think it is important to respect the intellectual property of other entities.

We are adequately controlling information in our possession such as intellectual property, business information, and technology information, and are taking utmost care for measures to counter potential information leakage and cyberattack incidents.

Intellectual Property Management

The Company has established "Basic Regulations for Intellectual Properties", based on the policy of "applying for and acquiring valid patents to protect our business and increase business value, and not to infringe on the patents of other companies." In accordance with these regulations, we are working to acquire, manage, and utilize intellectual property assets. We acquire useful and highly original intellectual property assets based on these regulations and we protect them from infringement by third parties. These regulations also require us to respect all intellectual property rights of third parties. As one of the other concrete activities, we are focusing on continuous patent watching (SDI: selective dissemination of information) on the area of interest, which is utilized for intellectual property management.

At each research center of Shin-Etsu Chemical, members of the Patent Department discuss their research themes on a monthly basis, either in person or via online web conference, hold patent review meetings with the persons in charge of patents in each research group and key researchers, and investigate whether there is any infringement of other companies' patents.

In addition, we educate each researcher so that they can prepare specifications for patent applications, and we are focusing on creating a system that allows them to conduct research while keeping patents in mind.

Furthermore, employees who have devised useful inventions, improvements, and devices at work have been awarded under the following systems:

Actual Compensation Awards

A system to recognize and award employees who have created an invention or idea which greatly contributed to the company in the form of patents

FY2023: 28 awards (Shin-Etsu Chemical)

Multiple Inventor Awards

A system to recognize employees who have made a large number of inventions and acquired a large number of patent rights in the company

FY2023: 12 awards (Shin-Etsu Chemical)

TOPIC

Selected as a Clarivate Top 100 Global Innovator™ for the 13 consecutive year

logo: Top 100 Global Innovator 2024 Clarivate TM

For the 13 consecutive year, the company has been awarded the Top 100 Global Innovator, which identifies and celebrates the world's most innovative companies and organizations.

The award is granted by Clarivate (United Kingdom)̶a global information services company that analyzes intellectual property assets and patent trends based on its patent data̶to the world's leading companies and organizations that are engaged in protecting original inventions with intellectual property rights, and successfully commercializing them. Nine Japanese companies, including our company, have been awarded for the 13 consecutive year, and we are the only chemical company among them.

Initiatives of Shin-Etsu Polymer

Promoting technology secrecy as a countermeasure against counterfeit goods overseas

Shin-Etsu Polymer strives to maximize its intellectual property rights by filing patent applications at an early stage of development concept design or prototyping, and then filing multifaceted applications, such as priority applications and divisional applications, as the business progresses. At the same time, it protects and utilizes intellectual property that can ensure its competitive advantage by filing applications for peripheral technologies that prevent other companies from entering the market.

In addition to patents, design protection is also used as a countermeasure against counterfeit goods overseas, and effective utility model rights are used in some cases for some countries. For technologies that should be kept secret as know-how without being disclosed to the public, in addition to withdrawing them prior to disclosure, each department is periodically asked to submit a list of their know-how and ensure that it is kept confidential within the company. For these activities, it is important to have the latest and correct information on trends provided by patent managers and inventors selected from each department, which is why the Intellectual Property Department at Development Headquarters communicates closely with each department. Furthermore, timestamps* have begun to be introduced as a means of securing prior use rights.

In the other direction, to ensure that Shin-Etsu Polymer does not infringe on the intellectual property rights of others, patent gazettes related to the development themes and products of each department are distributed monthly to each department, and ongoing periodic searches (SDI) of gazettes that have caught the attention of the Intellectual Property Department or development department are conducted. In additio, since action may be necessary depending on the scope of the rights of others, the Intellectual Property Department has set up email alerts triggered by events such as requests for examination or acquisition of rights for other people's publications, and checks whether any action is needed or not on a case-by-case basis.

*Time stamp
A technology that proves that electronic data existed at the time the stamp was applied and that it has not been modified or tampered with since then.

Initiatives for Information Asset Management

For daily business operations and smooth communication, it is extremely important to use information assets effectively. On the other hand, the risk of information being leaked or otherwise mishandled is growing due to the inappropriate management of information assets. For this reason, all personnel who handle information are required to understand the importance of information assets and manage and use them properly. In the case of an emergency, we must prevent it from becoming worse and affecting other operations, and make the greatest possible effort to maintain information security on a Group-wide basis.

Regulations are set under the "Information Asset Management Basic Policy" to protect, utilize, control, and manage information assets.

Furthermore, related rules and regulations such as "Information Asset Management Standards" stipulate the details concerning the handling, management, retention period, and discarding of all information related to our customers and suppliers. In addition, we have formulated the "Standards for Preventing Technology Leaks" in order to prevent the outflow of technologies.

We also regularly carry out training related to information asset management, check the status of compliance with the "Information Asset Management Basic Policy" and other rules, and perform internal audits. In January 2024, we invited a lawyer to give a lecture on precautions regarding leakage and unauthorized acquisition of information. There were 304 attendees from Shin-Etsu Chemical, 1,030 from 32 Group companies in Japan, and 110 from 29 overseas Group companies, for a total of 1,446 attendees. The audience was briefed on how the leakage and unauthorized acquisition of information are dealt with under laws and regulations such as the Unfair Competition Prevention Act and the Personal Information Protection Act, recent legal reforms and court cases, and how they relate to the Company's internal rules.

The Shin-Etsu Chemical head office and information management local offices established in each region play a central role in confirming the storage and management status of information assets through audits of all departments throughout the company. We are working to further advance the prevention of information leaks and the organizing information and effective use of information.

Protection of Personal Information

In order to properly protect personal information in accordance with the Act on the Protection of Personal Information, we have established a "Privacy Policy," which is available on our website.

We also educate our staff on laws and regulations and hold lectures regarding personal information protection in trainings for each staff rank in order to ensure the appropriate handling and protection of personal information.

Group companies in the EU area comply with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)*, which came into force in May 2018.

*General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
The General Data Protection Regulation stipulates on the handling and transfer of personal information. EU member countries had their own regulations to protect personal data, and these regulations were unified under the General Data Protection Regulation in May 2018.

Cyber Security

In preparation for cyberattack, we have bolstered our surveillance system with an intrusion detection service that operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We also received security diagnoses from external contractors, and continue to take necessary security measures.

To prevent the introduction of threats through unauthorized access, we have been promoting a multi-layered defense setup since December 2022, mainly at Shin-Etsu Chemical and Shin-Etsu Handotai, including a 24-hour surveillance system for endpoint detection and response (EDR). Additionally, we have strengthened security measures to protect important data and equipment from cyberattacks by physically and logically separating the office automation (OA) network from the factory automation (FA) network. Meanwhile, we investigate the security measures of other Group companies, require them to strengthen their security measures to the same level as Shin-Etsu Chemical, and provide support for doing this. In September 2023, we revised our digital utilization guidelines, which cover such areas as generative AI, translation software, password settings, and cloud usage, and have been rolling them out to Group companies.

We invite outside experts to give lectures on cyber security. In 2023, we designated August as Cybersecurity Month, and held a lecture on the theme of “cybersecurity countermeasures,” with content that was easy for users to understand, including incident case studies and criminal trends.

Cybersecurity lecture
(Shin-Etsu Chemical Head Office, August 2023)

We have deployed a system to prevent targeted email attacks. In addition to measures for preventing intrusions, we are strengthening our measures for detecting and analyzing attacks. In order to raise employee awareness of security, we also conduct targeted email attack drills every year for the Shin-Etsu Chemical and group companies. E-mails simulating the latest targeted attack techniques were sent to all participants four times a year, and after the training was completed, explanatory materials on targeted attack e-mails were distributed to all participants. We provide individual training to each employee those who opened the targeted e-mails at least twice during the drill.

Related Data

Aspect Classification Scope Unit FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
Patents acquired Japan Main consolidated manufacturing companies Number of patents 606 601 656
Overseas Main consolidated manufacturing companies Number of patents 1,351 1,113 1,325
Asia/Oceania Main consolidated manufacturing companies Number of patents 768 672 773
North America Main consolidated manufacturing companies Number of patents 205 189 189
Europe Main consolidated manufacturing companies Number of patents 374 246 359
Other Main consolidated manufacturing companies Number of patents 4 4 4
Total Main consolidated manufacturing companies Number of patents 1,957 1,714 1,981
Patents held Japan Main consolidated manufacturing companies Number of patents 7,535 7,730 7,921
Overseas Main consolidated manufacturing companies Number of patents 14,102 14,580 15,145
Asia/Oceania Main consolidated manufacturing companies Number of patents 6,633 7,028 7,479
North America Main consolidated manufacturing companies Number of patents 3,203 3,206 3,225
Europe Main consolidated manufacturing companies Number of patents 4,197 4,278 4,381
Other Main consolidated manufacturing companies Number of patents 69 68 60
Total Main consolidated manufacturing companies Number of patents 21,637 22,310 23,066