Hitachi Recognized as a "Clarivate Top 100 Global Innovator" for 15 Consecutive Years with Outstanding IP Activities
Tokyo, January 22, 2026 ― Hitachi, Ltd. (“Hitachi”) today announced that Hitachi has been recognized as one of the world’s top 100 innovative companies in "Clarivate Top 100 Global Innovators 2026." This award is hosted by Clarivate Plc (“Clarivate”), which owns one of the largest patent databases in the world. Hitachi is honored to be recognized for its achievements in the intellectual property (IP) field and to win this award for 15 consecutive years, ever since the awards began in 2012.
Clarivate has selected 100 global companies as "Clarivate Top 100 Global Innovators" annually based on Clarivate's patent database, its patent research and analysis platform, as well as its own evaluation criteria. Companies listed in the "Clarivate Top 100 Global Innovators" are recognized for their innovativeness, efforts to protect IP, and creation of inventions that have had a great impact on a global scale.
Leveraging the Source of Value Creation
Under Hitachi Group Management Plan "Inspire 2027", we expect to strengthen synergies between businesses and regions, especially in digital and Lumada-related areas. By deepening such connections, we hope to accelerate the creation of innovation and solutions, which should also increase the intellectual properties generated from them. Hitachi has positioned these intellectual properties as the source of business growth and value creation, and we are enhancing our cross-departmental and global intellectual property activities under the leadership of the Chief Intellectual Property Officer (CIPO) to ensure that this source is effectively leveraged.
Specifically, by appropriately protecting and managing not only inventions but also software, data, design rights and other IP (such as know-how, trade secrets) that are valuable to the Company’s businesses, we are concentrating on building the optimal intellectual property portfolio that can support digital-centric business growth while also promoting the sharing of intellectual property throughout the Group. Furthermore, as generative AI develops, its effect on intellectual property rights and their management is becoming a new issue, and therefore we are also focusing on risk management in the field of intellectual property, such as by analyzing copyright risks, formulating guidelines, using generative AI in intellectual property management, and seeking to understand related precedents.
By visualizing intellectual property, strategically managing and utilizing it, and promoting IP sharing within the group, alongside minimizing IP-related risks, we aim to contribute to the achievement of the Inspire 2027 goals and the realization of a true One Hitachi.
About Clarivate Top 100 Global Innovators
Clarivate's selection of the "Top 100 Global Innovators" is based on rigorous research utilizing proprietary analysis derived from worldwide patent data, and the evaluation is based on the following two-step approach:
- Stage 1: Companies and organizations that have applied for more than 500 patents since 2000 and have more than 100 inventions registered as patents in the past five years (in this selection, 2020-2024 for this selection) are extracted. They are then evaluated based on the ratio and scale of international inventions (ideas that have been patented in multiple countries and regions).
- Second stage: Each invention is scored on four factors such as “influence”, “success rate”, “geographical investment” and “rarity”, and evaluated by comparing it with all other patent ideas.
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