Intellectual Property

Policies and Concepts

Approach to Intellectual Property Activities

The NTT Group, which engages in R&D, from basic to applied, in a wide range of technological fields, has accumulated intellectual property investments (R&D investments) over the years as a telecommunications operator that are unparalleled around the globe.

By adequately protecting the results of such intellectual property investments and working to create new value by steadily pursuing activities that promote their diverse application, the NTT Group aims to not only secure its business advantage but also contribute to the enhanced industrial competitiveness of Japan as well as to global sustainability.

Organization for Implementation

The NTT Group's Intellectual Property Management Organization

As the NTT Group's core organization for managing intellectual property, the NTT Intellectual Property Center takes into account medium-term viewpoints in accordance with corporate strategy as it creates management policies shared across the NTT Group, cooperates with the intellectual property departments of each Group company through the NTT Group Intellectual Property Management Council, and works to realize management conducted through repeated sharing of information and discussion.

Liaisons under this Council that specialize in legal systems and work involving intellectual property have also been established to work to establish governance and reduce business risk by sharing trends, as well as thoughts on their effects and possible countermeasures with regards to reforms of domestic and international systems, examples of conflicts, and examples of court decisions.

The NTT Group's Intellectual Property Management Organization

Targets and Performance

(10) Number of patent applications
FY 2023 results: 1,968 applications
FY 2024 target: Same as previous FY

The results of R&D, which plays a major role in the creation of intellectual property for NTT Group, has translated into ownership of approximately 20,000 patents around the world.

Number of NTT's held patents and patent applications:

The patent portfolio held by NTT reflects our investment in intellectual property across a wide variety of fields, from hardware-related fields such as semiconductors and materials to software fields such as communications control, security, voice and image processing, artificial intelligence, and more.

Portfolio of NTT's held patents (in Japan) by technological field:

Comparison of SDGs-related Patents Held by the NTT Group and 3 Other Industry Groups ^*1

Many of the patents held by the NTT Group are those related to SDGs. The Group is constructing a patent portfolio that contributes to each goal of SDGs.

^※1Created based on data current as of September 2024 from PatentSight®, a patent analysis tool provided by LexisNexis.

^※2An indicator for the competitive advantage and overall value of a patent portfolio. Calculated based on quantitative and qualitative indices.

AI-related Patent Portfolio

From a business perspective, we are actively pursuing patents for our portfolio in, for example, the field of generative AI, which is expected to attract significant public interest going forward.

According to a report issued by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on July 9, 2024, NTT ranks 13th worldwide in the number of patent applications related to generative AI filed over the ten years from 2014 to 2023.

^*Source: Patent Landscape Report - Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI)

Moreover, we are working to secure a competitive advantage in business by obtaining a wide range of patents, not only for fundamental technologies such as learning technologies, but also inventions that apply them for business in a variety of industries.

NTT's large language model (LLM) "tsuzumi," which launched for commercial use on March 25, 2024, is lightweight yet boasts world-class Japanese processing capabilities. Our years of accumulated research and development in natural language processing is especially expected to benefit the CX field (such as contact centers), which is one of the focal business sectors, and our high number of Japanese patent applications also suggests a significant technological advantage in this field.

Number of Japanese patent applications in the CX field (contact centers)

Comparison of fields of application between NTT and two competitors in the AI field

The competitive advantage underpinned by intellectual property rights attracts the interest of customers and partner companies, leading to collaborative projects with NTT. This creates opportunities for customers to adopt "tsuzumi" and services and solutions that utilize the LLM. This also contributes to the revenue of data centers and network products that underlie these services. In this way, intellectual property rights play a significant role in ensuring NTT's sustained growth.

Intellectual property portfolio related to green transformation (GX)

For the five green transformation (GX) technologies in the "GXTI (Green Transformation Technologies Inventory)" technological category created by the Japan Patent Office in June 2022 in order to establish a panoramic perspective of GX technologies, NTT can confirm that the research and development outcomes it has nurtured over time has yielded the creation of patents in energy supply (gxA), batteries and energy storage (gxC), energy saving, electrification and demand-supply flexibility (gxB), and other various GX-related fields.

Main Initiatives

Intellectual Property Strategy Formulation and Implementation

To achieve the Medium-Term Management Strategy, the NTT Intellectual Property Center formulates and implements an intellectual property strategy as part of a trifecta including both business and R&D strategies from the perspectives of (1) strategic acquisition, (2) risk management, and (3) utilization of intellectual properties held, based on the policies and concepts for intellectual property activities.

Intellectual Property Education / Human Resources Training Initiatives

Initiatives to raise NTT Group employee awareness relating to intellectual property

The NTT Group conducts e-learning training, awareness-raising activities, and more for employees primarily through the intellectual property departments of each company in accordance with that company's unique characteristics.

From the perspective of the NTT Group as a whole, the NTT Intellectual Property Center has been holding a cross-Group comprehensive event known as IPR*-DAY since FY 2022, with the aim of elevating the level of interest in intellectual property among Group employees and helping them integrate this knowledge into their daily work.
(*Intellectual Property Right)

IPR-DAY 2023, conducted November 2023, saw the participation of over 500 individuals from 63 Group companies, covering a diverse range of professions.

During the event, lively discussions took place on timely topics provided not only by the NTT Intellectual Property Center, but also by intellectual property managers from various Group companies, leading to a significant rise in interest and understanding of intellectual property.

A website for Group employees opened by the NTT Intellectual Property Center also aims to raise employee awareness through regularly communicating basic knowledge, columns explaining news, and other information related to intellectual property.

Invention Incentive System

In accordance with the employee invention system stipulated in the Patent Act, each Group company has established an invention incentive system in order to increase incentives to create technologies, business-related ideas, and more that will act as future sources of business.

Based on the objectives of the Patent Act, the NTT Intellectual Property Center provides incentives for the creation of ideas as early as possible in order to promote cycles of creation that will lead to new ideas, and also reviews these incentive systems as needed.