KYOCERA establishes IP base in Germany

KYOCERA Corporation establishes a new intellectual property department in Germany this April.

KYOCERA is one of the biggest manufacturers in the field of electronic/ information/ communication devices, solar batteries and ceramics-related products, reporting their consolidated sales of 1,526,500 million yen for the full year ending March 2015.

This IP department is the third overseas base of KYOCERA, following bases established in the US and China. According to KYOCERA, the main purpose of the establishment of this IP department is to brush up strategy of patent applications in Europe.

KYOCERA intends to enhance intellectual property-related aspects of their business in the field of in-vehicle devices since Europe is main battlefield of the business.

The number of patents that KYOCERA owns in foreign countries remains only about 4,200, while they own over 10,000 patents in Japan. Since the overseas sales occupies over half of their total sales, KYOCERA aims to increase the number of patent registrations in overseas up to the level of the Japanese domestic patent registrations.

(Reported by Yoko MIYAMOTO, Japanese Patent Attorney)