In Top 100 Global Innovators 2014, a program hosted by Thomson Reuters (head office: New York, USA; Japanese office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo), that selects the world’s most innovative corporations and research institutes, Nitto Denko Corporation (head office: Osaka City; president: Hideo Takasaki; hereinafter “Nitto”) was chosen among the world’s top 100 companies for the fourth consecutive year, and an award ceremony was held.

At Nitto, we have been making company-wide efforts to maximize the value of ideas by using intellectual property (IP) to appropriately protect invention ideas and effectively industrialize them. In recent years, in line with global business expansion, we have been aggressively globalizing our IP activities as well. We believe that these activities have led to our receiving this prestigious award on this occasion.

On December 17, a trophy was presented to us at the Nitto Head Office by Mr. Masaki Nagao, Thomson Reuters’ Managing Director, IP & Science Asia-Pacific. Mr. Nagao said, “Among the millions of well-known companies throughout the world, we selected the top 100, and chose Nitto as a company that made especially outstanding accomplishments in the field of intellectual property. I would like to congratulate you on your receiving this award for the fourth straight year.” Nitto President Takasaki commented, “It is a tremendous honor to receive such a distinguished award for the fourth consecutive year. We regard IP strategy as business management itself, and work to strengthen our business by combining business and IP strategies. We hope to use this award as an incentive to further work as a team so that we could be selected for the prize again next year.”

Nitto will continue to enhance the value of intellectual property and make utmost efforts to maximize corporate value.

Thomson Reuters, an information service corporation with worldwide reputation, has since 2011 been selecting the world’s most innovative corporations and institutions as the Top 100 Global Innovators, based on the number of patent applications submitted, the rate of success, degree of globalization, and influence. This year, Asia made dramatic strides, and Japan, in particular, sharply increased the number of award-winning corporations from 28 last year to 39.

Press release by Thomson Reuters:http://thomsonreuters.com/press-releases/112014/2014-top-100-innovators