Yokogawa joins LOT Network to promote and safeguard Open Innovation

Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces it has joined LOT Network to protect its members from patent assertion entities (PAEs)

Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces it has joined LOT Network, a global non-profit organization that aims to protect its members from patent assertion entities (PAEs). The move reflects the increasingly strategic role of intellectual property as the company seeks to support customers on their digital transformation journeys. As industries of all sectors experience an unprecedented convergence of technologies, Yokogawa’s participation in LOT Network reaffirms the company’s commitment to innovate together with its customers and to align with the global community of technology companies through the promotion and protection of open innovation. To foster open innovation, for example, Yokogawa has been developing and implementing collaborative approaches. These are frameworks for establishing effective industry-academia-government collaboration (inbound activities) and utilizing in-house intellectual property (outbound activities).

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Yokogawa joins LOT Network

Tsuyoshi Abe, a Yokogawa senior vice president, and head of the Marketing Headquarters, commented, “At Yokogawa, as part of our business transformation, we are advancing more into the Industrial Internet of Things space; consequently the use of information technology is increasing significantly. With our membership in LOT Network, we will be able to continue to thrive with our co-innovation DNA while protecting the appropriate uses of patents“. PAEs acquire patents for the purpose of monetizing them through litigation, a process which is costly for active companies and can derail innovation. By joining LOT Network, members agree that if any member’s patent assets fall into the hands of a PAE, the company provides a license to all other network members. LOT Network members safeguard each other against disruptive PAE litigation from those patents. “We’re pleased that Yokogawa recognizes the importance of having an IP strategy that includes membership in LOT Network,” said Ken Seddon, LOT Network CEO. “Their membership reflects a growing sentiment that protecting innovation by preventing the financial drain of lengthy PAE litigation is a global priority.”

LOT Network is an international community of the world’s leading high-tech companies committed to protecting its members from costly patent troll litigation. LOT Network currently protects more than 1,000 members in 36 countries from litigation from over 2.7 million worldwide patents and counting. Network members include market leaders such as IBM, Toyota, Visa, Canon, Google, Tesla, Cisco, Amazon, Microsoft, Alibaba and Olympus, as well as innovative companies across industries.

Founded in 1915, Yokogawa engages in broad-ranging activities in the areas of measurement, control, and information. The industrial automation business provides vital products, services, and solutions to a diverse range of process industries including oil, chemicals, natural gas, power, iron and steel, and pulp and paper. With the life innovation business, the company aims to radically improve productivity across the pharmaceutical and food industry value chains. The test & measurement, aviation, and other businesses continue to provide essential instruments and equipment with industry-leading precision and reliability. Yokogawa co-innovates with its customers through a global network of 114 companies spanning 62 countries, generating US$3.7 billion in sales in FY2019.

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