Intellectual Property Policy
ITO EN promotes intellectual property management that contributes to solving social issues and improving corporate value, in line with the sustainability-related material issues set out in the medium- to long-term management plan.
1. Our priority areas (domains) for the creation of intellectual property are as follows.
- New brand creation, maintenance and improvement of existing brand value
- Tea's health functions
- Other growth categories
- Environmentally friendly technologies
- New areas with commercialization potential
2. We will endeavor to strategically acquire intellectual property rights, taking the following into consideration.
- Cost performance
- Open and close strategy
3. We will endeavor to properly protect and utilize intellectual property and to respect robust IP rules and regimes (respect third-party intellectual property).
4. In light of the importance of IP management, we will develop systems that will enable us to do the following. We will also develop human resources responsible for the systems and encourage the creation of intellectual property.
- Support management decision-making and make proposals based on IP analysis
- Support collaboration among group companies including overseas affiliates