Science thomsonreuters.com

AKAKABE: Our company, SHOWA DENKO K.K., is becoming a much more cutting edge technology-based business developing a wide range of products.

These days, we work in some very competitive areas such as optoelectronic devices. We utilize patent information effectively for our business strategy. For example, when we are latecomers, patent information analysis helps us greatly to find a niche to make our own.  I find it a very satisfying part of my work when our researchers say to me "we didn't know that" and I save us a very costly patent infringement.

In the past I would only receive requests for intellectual property searches but over the last few years that has changed a lot. We are now part of what we call a 'Holy Trinity' where research and development, commercially-focused people and IP specialists like me all come together at the start of a project. I now travel and meet with teams face-to-face. I don't have to assume what's needed as I used to.  Instead, we all work together to define the best approach for developing, protecting and marketing our innovation. It's so much more interactive and therefore much more enjoyable. With the current economic climate it is now more important than ever to make sure we have a clear strategy for a particular project, and my role is a big part of that.

OYAMA: As China continues to grow at a faster rate than any other economy and since the Lehman Brothers crisis, having this clear strategy is even more important. China has 1.3 billion consumers, a huge market. To be successful, it is crucial that our company, DENKA, builds a strong patent portfolio in China. This will enable us to grow with the market and their economy. One particular area of interest for us is advanced polymers which have applications in mobile phones, TVs and the automobiles. These are high volume products and always in demand. Pharmaceutical patents are also of great interest, since we consider ways of penetrating Chinese market.

Between us, Yukie and I have a lot of expertise with China patents. We have known each other for a number of years and together we wrote a book named 'The Knack of Searching Chinese Patents' which has been well received. In our work and in writing the book we both use Derwent World Patents Index. The contents are very high quality and very comprehensive. Information and specifications for China, which is a special area of interest for us, are also very good. In fact we would like to make it available to all our end users.