KYOCERA Named a 2015 Top 100 Global Innovator by Thomson Reuters

Kyocera Corporation (NYSE:KYO)(TOKYO:6971) announced that it was recognized as one of the 2015 Top 100 Global Innovators by Thomson Reuters, a worldwide provider of intelligent information for business enterprises and professionals, for the second consecutive year. Kyocera was highly recognized for its patent success rate and global reach; a trophy was presented at the company’s headquarters in Kyoto, Japan.

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Junichi Jinno, General Manager of Corporate Legal and Intellectual Property Group at Kyocera (left) receiving the trophy from Mr. Hirofumi Hino, Vice President and Head of Japan Professional Services IP & Science, at Thomson Reuters (right) (Photo: Business Wire)

The Thomson Reuters Top 100 Global Innovators awards have been presented annually since 2011 to recognize organizations at the center of global innovation by analyzing their developments in intellectual property and patents based on Thomson Reuters’ data and original methodology.

The basic policy of the Kyocera Group is to safeguard the yields of research and development as intellectual property rights and to respect the intellectual property rights of others. Kyocera’s activities relating to intellectual property resulted in a high success rate. In addition, Kyocera emphasizes foreign patents since its business is expanding globally. The company holds a Global Intellectual Property Partners Meeting, which is a joint gathering for patent offices in the U.S., Europe, China, Korea, Japan and the Group’s staff in charge of intellectual property, to discuss various topics about intellectual property including patent application specifications and specific case examples. Currently, the company has two overseas branches for intellectual property in the U.S. and China and will open a new branch in Europe in April 2016.

"We are grateful to be named a 2015 Top 100 Global Innovator for the second consecutive year, which is in part due to the consistent support of our patent & law firms and each of our product divisions,” said Junichi Jinno, Senior Executive Officer and General Manager of Corporate Legal and Intellectual Property Group. "Innovation continues to be a vital company asset and these influential patents are important to protect further global business development.”

About the Thomson Reuters 2015 Top 100 Global Innovators

Research and analysis were performed utilizing Thomson Reuters Derwent World Patents Index^® (DWPI^SM), Derwent Patents Citation Index^® and Thomson Innovation^®, a premier IP intelligence and collaboration platform. The methodology to identify the Top 100 Global Innovators included four principal criteria.

1. Volume
All organizations with 100 or more patented new inventions in the past five years are included in the analysis.

2. Success rate
The analysis measures the ratio of inventions described in published applications (those patents which are filed and publicly published by the patent office but not yet granted) to inventions protected with granted patents in the past five years.

3. Global reach
The global reach of inventions is analyzed by calculating the number of basic inventions that have quadrilateral patents in their patent families in China, Europe, Japan and the United States.

4. Influence
The number of citations to the organization’s patents by other companies is counted over the most recent five years, excluding self citations.

About KYOCERA

Kyocera Corporation (NYSE:KYO)(TOKYO:6971) (http://global.kyocera.com/), the parent and global headquarters of the Kyocera Group, was founded in 1959 as a producer of fine ceramics (also known as "advanced ceramics”). By combining these engineered materials with metals and integrating them with other technologies, Kyocera has become a leading supplier of solar power generating systems, telecommunications equipment, printers, copiers, electronic components, semiconductor packages, industrial ceramics and cutting tools. During the year ended March 31, 2015, the company’s net sales totaled 1.53 trillion yen (approx. USD12.7 billion). Kyocera is ranked #552 on Forbes magazine’s 2015 "Global 2000” listing of the world’s largest publicly traded companies.

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