The NOF Group aims to create new value in the three fields of Life/ Healthcare, Environment/Energy, and Electronics/IT, and is promoting the development of new products and technologies while actively pursuing the acquisition of intellectual property rights. We also respect intellectual property rights, along with putting our efforts into human resources development.

In the Life/Healthcare, Environment/Energy, and Electronics/IT fields, we formulate intellectual property strategies based on management strategies and acquire the necessary rights.
The number of patents we hold in the Life/Healthcare field has been growing in line with the expansion of our global operations.

Based on our corporate philosophy of “contributing to humanity and society as a corporate group that creates new value through the power of chemistry, from the biosphere to outer space,” we work to create new businesses by actively promoting open innovation and the discovery of promising topics both inside and outside the Company.
Centered on the research divisions of the NOF Group, including the Advanced Technology Research Laboratory, we promote the development of new products and technologies through joint and commissioned research with industry, academia, and the government, as well as acquiring the effective rights to these products and technologies.
In addition, we offer invention rewards for patents that make a significant contribution to the Company’s profits. By increasing incentives for inventors, we are working to increase motivation toward producing inventions that contribute significantly to profits.

We hire qualified patent attorneys and provide support for the acquisition of patent attorney qualifications to enhance the expertise of personnel working in this area. We also provide training on intellectual property to inventors in order to raise the level of intellectual property throughout the Group.

In order to respect the intellectual property rights of others and avoid disputes, we conduct regular patent searches to ensure patent clearance.

In April each year, NOF carries out an examination of employee inventions and awards invention rewards to inventors.