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1 October 2001
QED to license Toyota's automotive patents
QED Intellectual Property Limited, the patent licensing arm of technology development
and licensing company, Scipher plc, is delighted to announce that it has signed
a licensing agreement with Toyota Central Research and Development Laboratories
in Japan. QED will license a portfolio of 21 technologies including sensors, electronics
and 3D measurement and control systems, and seek to recover licensing fees from
new or existing users outside Japan.
QED has built a global reputation for successfully managing and negotiating
licensing deals on behalf of patent holders. This deal with Toyota represents
QED's first agreement with a Japanese patent owner since opening an office in
Tokyo earlier this year. Japan is the second largest patent owner in the world
and many Japanese companies have been looking to generate revenues from their
patent and intellectual property (IP) assets.
As David Hulston, Managing Director of QED said, "We are seeing a transformation
in Japanese strategy regarding its IP asset base. No longer purely a defensive
tool, companies like Toyota are increasingly seeking to exploit the revenue generating
benefits that IP provides. We are delighted to be working with Toyota in licensing
their IP and believe that this marks a significant step towards the wholesale
commercialisation of Japanese IP."
Toyota on the other hand has been quoted as being "the benchmark (car
company) for productivity and value creation." Its sales have grown from
Y9,362bn in 1994 to Y13,424bn last year, and has consistently maintained its market
share over the last 15-20 years despite intense global competition. Hiroshi Okuda,
Toyota's chairman, puts this down to overcoming "old industry" constraints
such as, global capacity, weakening demand or intense price pressures. By designing
new low cost, environmentally friendly and safer cars he said that Toyota were
meeting consumers requirements whilst maintaining healthy profit ratios and cash
reserves(1).
QED believes that it is this forward thinking attitude that has sparked Toyota's
drive to capitalise on its IP asset base. The company spends a massive $6.06bn
on research and development and has protected this with a large bank of IP rights.
The company now believes the time is right to generate new licensing revenue from
this massive annual investment.
(1) Toyota: A pace-setter gears up for growth. The Financial Times, 23 September
2001
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