PASONA Knowledge Partner

Language Japanese/ English

Our Message to You

Pasona Knowledge Partner’s hopes as
a company that carries out intellectual
property management and patent research
in the field of intellectual property.

Our Hopes

Our company was jointly established in April 2016 by Pasona Group Inc., which operates around 50 companies in Japan and overseas focusing on human resources-related business, and Panasonic IP Management Co., Ltd., which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Panasonic Corporation and responsible for business related to intellectual property.

When we were first established, we focused on patent research and in January 2018 we concluded an outsourcing agreement with Panasonic IP Management for Research Operations and Management Operations related to intellectual property. At the same time, we took on staff who had been working at the front line of intellectual property operations, and were able to both increase the quality of our Research Operations as well as Management Operations, and expand the range of our services. Through this, the services we offered were no longer limited to just the various types of research involved in intellectual property, and by making best use of the operation and management know-how in the field of intellectual property that Panasonic and Panasonic IP Management had gained over the years, we were now able to offer a comprehensive solutions service for matters related to intellectual property.
As we go forward, we intend to strengthen our ability to work globally. We took over from Panasonic IP Management their contacts with overseas patent firms, mainly in Europe and North America, and their know-how in making direct applications.
We intend to use these in strengthening our research operations in China.

We will continue to expand and enhance our operations and, aiming to become a Company Offering Comprehensive Intellectual Property Solutions, we will look to take on a range of challenges. We look forward to carrying on our work with valued clients, and at the same time would like to thank our clients for their understanding and support.

Pasona Knowledge Partner’s Strengths and the Direction in which We are Aiming

Ours is a unique company, established by the Pasona Group, which offers services related to Human Resources, and Panasonic IP Management, which was responsible for all the International Property operations of Panasonic, to cross over the boundaries between industries. By making use of the strengths of both the Pasona Group and Panasonic IP Management and fusing these, we are able to offer a new solutions service of a kind that has not been offered before.
An example of a specific strength comes from having taken over from Panasonic, staff with extensive experience in intellectual property and all their know-how in this field. Onto that we were able to add the human resource matching know-how of the Pasona Group and took on a range of staff from backgrounds other than from Panasonic, and increase the degree of specialization and standardization in our intellectual property operations. As a result of this, we are able to deliver suitable solutions for companies’ needs regarding innovation.
Another strength is the close cooperation we have with the Pasona Group, which is a Registered Research Organization with the Japan Patent Firm. The Pasona Group first started work in prior art literature research in 2006, and now has more than 270 staff members working in prior art searches. Through this, we provide high quality research related to a wide range of technological fields.

We are aiming to construct a platform with know-how and human resources experienced in intellectual property. When the platform is achieved, we will be able to support companies who desire strategic research abilities and management know-how regarding intellectual property to introduce their own know-how, and also match the most appropriate human resources to suitable workplaces. Furthermore, we can work with small and medium enterprises, venture companies, universities and research institutions, which cannot employ staff permanently, provide them with appropriate and flexible know-how, and also dispatch necessary staff to work on-site. We believe this will allow us to create new technologies and business innovation and so contribute to Japan’s development.

In future, we aim to strengthen our cooperative relationships with companies who approve of what we do, and further increase the quality and the breadth of the menu of services we offer, and create more jobs in the field of intellectual property.

Pasona Knowledge Partner Inc.
President & COO

岩本博隆

Social Background to the Establishment of Pasona Knowledge Partner Inc.

Japan is facing the issues of a shrinking population caused by a declining birthrate and aging population, which combined create a social challenge, the likes of which have not been encountered before. On the other hand, the social implementation of AI, Big Data, the IoT and other technologies is progressing across the world, with the USA and China leading in this field. For Japan to carry on developing in the future, we need to carry forward the 4th industrial revolution through discontinuous innovation and social change that have not taken place up to now, overcome various social problems including energy and environmental problems, and bring about “Society 5.0,” a social system distinctive to Japan.
Furthermore, in recent years the criteria for value that society is asking for have been undergoing a switch from “physical things” to “ideas and knowledge”, that is “services and solutions”, and “data” itself. Also, what is demanded, is the creation of “ideas, business models and designs.”
For individual companies to win through against the international competition and address these new criteria for value, they need to carry on making use of what have long been Japan’s strengths — on-site capabilities, technical abilities and human resource strengths. At the same time, they must endeavor to overcome organizational walls, differences in organizational size, boundaries between industries and gaps between industry, government and academia, match human resources and technologies across a wide range of sites, and create new businesses strategically and speedily. The streamlining of management is also important. It is not simply a case of adding more staff to the existing organization, but a question of securing and reallocating the resources to allow operations to be made more efficient and processes made more innovative, while at the same time responding to changes.
Given these circumstances, it is certain that intellectual property will be more central to value creation than before, and also valuable in a different way. What will be necessary will be formulation of intellectual property strategies and an accompanying vision, taking into account the direction of changes in society, along with making appropriate efforts on the basis of these strategies. The role within companies of the departments related to intellectual property is broadening and they increasingly need to have specialist knowledge in areas that were unthinkable before, and the ability to make proposals to management.
However, because of the high degree of specialization and given that they handle confidential information about inventions, up until now, intellectual property departments have tended to grow by themselves or out of prior cooperation with a certain patent firm or lawyer’s office, and all the know-how about research, management and operations related to intellectual property have been held by individual companies. Human resources have also tended to move towards large companies and the movement of these resources has not progressed, leading to a shortage of people responsible for intellectual properties in venture, small and medium enterprises, exactly the type of companies that are trying to create new innovation.
What will solve these issues and cause a significant change in the market is the Platform that we are aiming for. We believe that when this is realized, it will be possible to jointly make use of these human resources with experience in intellectual property and management know-how, and that this will make a significant contribution to the promotion of innovation.