Intellectual Property
We protect and respect intellectual property rights,which is the source of corporate value.
Concept and Policy for Intellectual Property Activities
Socionext Group (Hereinafter, "Our Group") determines in our CSR Basic Policy that Our Group will protect and respect intellectual properties, which are the source of corporate value.
●Basic Concept
Our Group develops and retains various technologies and know-how to differentiate our products from those of other companies. In accordance with the CSR Basic Policy, Our Group works to protect and utilize these technologies and know-how as intellectual properties, and to appropriately use the intellectual properties of Our Group and third parties.
●Intellectual Property Activities
[To strengthen the advantage of our business based on "Solution SoC" business model with Intellectual Properties]
Our Group will help to bring about a prosperous society by delivering new value to our customers and to people around the world beyond them. We will do this as a valued partner of customers seeking unique and cutting-edge SoCs to differentiate their services and products. We will also do this as a partner of our suppliers providing the latest technologies in the evolving semiconductor ecosystem.
Our Group has stepped up investments in leading-edge technologies to achieve this goal and has created a lot of technologies and know-how as a result of these investments. By protecting and managing these technologies and know-how as intellectual properties such as patents and confidential information in an appropriate manner, Our Group is strengthening the advantage of our business based on "Solution SoC" model.
In particular, our Group is promoting patent applications by designating, as prioritized technical areas, “advanced technologies including 2nm and finer process nodes” and “chiplet technologies” that are key to develop custom SoCs in our focus areas of “Automotive”, “Data Center & Network”, “Smart Devices”, and “Industrial Equipment”. In addition, by this promotion activities, our Group is also accommodating a shift to advanced technology products in the future. Furthermore, our Group is proactively promoting foreign applications in addition to domestic (Japanese) applications in light of the increasing percentage of foreign markets in NRE revenue.
In this way, we are promoting domestic (Japanese) and foreign patent applications for leading-edge technologies that are key to our focus areas and building up domestic (Japanese) and foreign patent portfolios that support the advantage of our business based on "Solution SoC" model. Through this activity, we will contribute, from the perspective of intellectual properties, to strengthening our Group's technological capabilities and development competitiveness, which form the foundation for sustainable growth of our Group, and thereby further earning the trust of customers.
・Percentage of Applications in Prioritized technical areas*1
(As of March 2025)
・Percentage of Foreign applications*2
(As of March 2025)
*1: Percentage of applications in prioritized technical areas among all the applications filed between April, 2024 and March, 2025
*2: Percentage of applications of which counterpart foreign applications have been filed, among all the applications filed between April, 2023 and March, 2024
(including international applications under Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT))
[Intellectual Property Risk Management]
Our Group works to reduce various intellectual property risks surrounding our Solution SoC business. We have taken measures to reduce, for example, the risk of litigation and disputes arising from infringement of third party's rights, the risk of leakage of technologies and know-how, and the risk of inappropriate use of Open Source Software (OSS).
●Governance and Promotion System
Our Group has established an Intellectual Property Group for leading our intellectual property activities within a Development Group. Under the supervision of board meetings, the Development Group, Legal Group and intellectual property Group cooperate closely with each other to promote protection and management of newly created technologies and know-how and handling of intellectual property risks that arise in each case from the development stage of services and products.
In addition, Our Group has established a Software Management Promotion Group for promoting appropriate management of software which includes copyrighted material and Open Source Software (OSS) within the Development Group. The opportunities to use OSS in the Solution SoC business are increasing. In order to appropriately manage OSS compliance, Our Group has acquired the international standard certification of OpenChain ISO/IEC 5230:2020 and has worked to appropriately use OSS during the development process of services and products.
[Intellectual Property Activities Promotion System Chart]
