Daikin Industries, Ltd. announces its selection among the Derwent Top 100 Global Innovators 2020 as determined by Clarivate Analytics, a global information services with headquarters in Philadelphia, United States. Since 2011, Clarivate Analytics has been analyzing patent data to identify the world’s top 100 innovative companies and research institutions and has honored these outstanding companies with this award for the past nine years. This year marks the seventh time overall and the sixth consecutive year that Daikin has been selected.
Leveraging its extensive proprietary patent data, Clarivate Analytics analyses intellectual property trends and evaluates companies and research institutions worldwide for its prestigious list of Derwent Top 100 Global Innovators. The evaluation comprises four criteria: Volume (number of patents registered in the last five years), Success (percentage of patent registrations after examination), Globalization (percentage of applications in the four major markets of China, Europe, Japan, and the United States), and Influence (citation frequency in other companies’ patents).
As an air conditioning manufacturer with global business operations, Daikin promotes business strategy that effectively utilizes the patents it holds. For example, in 2011, Daikin granted emerging countries free access to 93 patents related to air conditioning equipment utilizing HFC-32 (R32). HFC-32 is a refrigerant with one-third the global warming potential (GWP) of commonly-used refrigerants and is considered effective in mitigating the impact of global warming. In 2015, the company extended free patent access for this technology across the globe to all countries. Moreover, in 2019, Daikin added approximately 180 patents relating to the manufacture and sale of air conditioners using HFC-32 refrigerant to the existing patents and eliminated pre-approval procedures including contracts. By accelerating global adoption to a low GWP refrigerant with high energy efficiency, Daikin aims to balance its environmental and social contribution with business growth while simultaneously working to sustain healthy growth for the entire industry.
Daikin will continue to work on R&D activities for creating innovation that provides new value to society as it further strengthens the intellectual property activities that support them.