Intellectual Property Rights Management Policy
Wistron places great importance on the management of intellectual capital. We have strengthened our R&D capabilities, introduced high value-added products and technical services for innovative functions, and improved manufacturing efficiency and quality through the intellectual property rights management policy. Wistron establishes, accumulates, maintains, and manages a comprehensive IP portfolio for the future. Furthermore, Wistron uses risk management to enhance our competitiveness and increase profitability. In the future, Wistron will continue to leverage our intellectual capital management plan by integrating Wistron’s strategic considerations and operating goals to ensure the production, management, and monetization of intellectual property rights.
Wistron's principles regarding intellectual property rights management are as follows:
Patent Portfolio Management
Wistron’s patent strategy is based on developing a healthy, sustainable and high performing global patent portfolio. As of today, we have an extensive patent portfolio of over 6,000 granted patents worldwide. We protect all technologies, designs, and inventions developed by the Company through our comprehensive patent portfolio, in order to maintain customer interests.
The patent team works closely with R&D units, leveraging brainstorming sessions, patent big data analysis, invention disclosure review meetings and other related mechanisms to uncover high-quality ideas and generate goal-oriented invention proposals. We have established more than three hundred review items to strengthen the review of the patent specification and implement strict management and control of patent quality. The items cover the entire patent prosecutions process to maintain the level of quality of each granted patent. We continue to improve the expertise of patent personnel and the patent knowledge of all employees internally, and evaluate patent firms externally. In order to encourage employees to invent and create, we have stipulated the Invention Reward Regulation to improve the quality and functions of our services and product, strengthen our competitiveness, and explore future development opportunities. We provide incentives for inventors and publicly recognize their efforts during our Annual Patent Award Ceremony.
For the quantity and quality control of patents, in addition to home-grown production, co-development, acquisition, investment for accumulating high value patents, we also drop unused patents. We use consistent standards to quantify patent evaluations, in order to precisely control the scope and value of patents and improve the deployment of our patent portfolio through various indicators. While maintaining a sizable patent portfolio, expanding the scope of technologies, improving patent quality, and increasing the overall value and benefits of patents, we will continue to improve the transparency and integrity of our patent portfolio. Wistron encourages patents within the Company to achieve the optimization and value maximization of our patent portfolio.
Trademark Management
Trademarks are an important representation of Wistron's products and services. A robust trademark strategy can strengthen the Company's brand image and ensure the brand is invulnerable. Wistron currently holds trademark protection in 37 key countries globally, with trademark presence on all five continents.
A sustainable brand demonstrates a company's commitment sustainable operations. To efficiently manage trademarks, Wistron has established a dedicated trademark team. This team directly liaises with offices in different countries to oversee trademark affairs, controlling costs and ensuring access to firsthand trademark information globally. Wistron's current trademark management priorities include:
1. Apply for trademark registration systematically in accordance with Wistron's business development;
2. Conduct a trademark search before using the trademark publicly to avoid infringing on others' trademark rights;
3. Utilize the global trademark monitoring system to prevent counterfeit or unauthorized use of the company's trademarks;
4. Evaluate the current usage of trademarks and phase out those that do not provide economic benefits.
Thanks to our rigorous and systematic trademark management system, Wistron has not faced any trademark infringement lawsuits since its establishment. To further enhance this system, we officially adopted the "Intellectual Property Management Standards (TIPS)" in 2023.
Protection of Trade Secrets and Confidential Information
Trademarks arTrade secrets and confidential information are important intellectual assets for Wistron. We use various control mechanisms to ensure the protection of trade secrets and confidential information. Apart from maintaining our competitive advantage, these protected assets can drive innovation and ensure our customers' rights. No substantiated complaints concerning breaches of customer privacy and losses of customer data were received by the Company in 2023.
To protect Wistron and our customer’s confidential information, we obtained the information security management system international standard ISO/IEC 27001 certification and carried out management measures accordingly. We conduct social engineering drills once every six months to improve employee awareness of phishing emails. The click rate in the 2023 drill has dropped to 7.1%. Meanwhile, we require confidential information and trade secret protection training for all new employees to ensure that employees fulfill our confidentiality commitments to our customers.
We have signed confidentiality agreements with our customers and related suppliers. Both parties are required to protect confidential information. In the past five years, we have signed an average of 400 to 700 confidentiality agreements every year. Customer information is handled by designated units to reduce the possibility of improper disclosure and leaks. We have also joined the Taiwan Association for Trade Secrets Protection to continue tracking changes to related laws and the industry.
Intellectual Property Rights Management
Wistron has enacted a formal intellectual property rights management policy since 2020. Highlights of Wistron’s management of intellectual property rights matters in 2023 include the following, which have been reported to Wistron’s board of directors on December 21, 2023:
1.Intellectual Property Management Policy Implementation Scenarios for 2023 are listed below:
(1) Patent Management
Wistron evaluates its patent portfolio annually, eliminating obsolete technologies or patents with relatively low quality/value (including those that have expired, been sold, or been abandoned), continuing to diversify and revitalize its patent assets, and increasing the number of patent-related programs and/or patent families that participate in and/or report their patents year after year. Wistron's patent portfolio is among the best in the industry, and its overall score in terms of quality and value of patents has improved year by year and outperformed that of many large international companies. In 2023, Wistron was selected as one of the top 100 innovation organizations in the world by ClarivateTM for two consecutive years. Additionally, we were also selected as one of the top 20 sustainable innovation companies in Taiwan by LexisNexis®.
(2) Trademark Management
We adopted "Taiwan Intellectual Property Standards (TIPS)" for trademark management in 2023 and have been verified (valid until December 31, 2024).
Registered trademarks are monitored from time to time through a global surveillance system to gain insight on others’ use and application of trademarks in various countries and file objections to potentially similar trademarks. 80 objection cases have been filed, with a success rate of over 89%.
(3) Protection of Trade Secrets and Confidential Information
In order to protect the confidential information of the Company and its customers, Wistron received ISO/IEC 27001 certification for information security management systems and has implemented related measures. Every six months, Wistron conducts social engineering simulation drills to raise employees' awareness of phishing letters. At the same time, all new employees are required to complete education and training on the protection of confidential information and business secrets to ensure that each employee can adhere to the commitment of confidentiality when dealing with customers. In addition, cloud-based digital tools, such as the encryption mechanism, identity identification and authorization principles in Microsoft Office 365, are used to protect confidential corporate documents. Wistron has signed confidentiality agreements with our customers and related suppliers to protect each other's confidential information. Microsoft's SCCM software is used regularly for software inventory. The software license course is a mandatory course for new employees. As of November 30, 2023, the cumulative number of employees who have passed the course is 12,991.
2. Wistron’s intellectual property rights portfolio:
Patent: Wistron owns more than 6,300 multinational patents (covering wider technology/ product fields and countries, and over 90% are invention patents) and designs worldwide.
Trademark: Wistron currently owns about 880 registered multinational trademarks. 750 trademarks were renewed, and 130 have been abandoned.
To enhance Wistron's brand image and brand trust, the focus and goals of our management policies in 2024 are as follows:
Intellectual Policy:
1. Enforce confidentiality management.
2. Strengthening the execution and auditing capabilities of authorized units for intellectual property management.
3. Strengthening the organization's intellectual property concepts and capabilities.
4. Strengthening intellectual property management.
Intelligent management goals:
1. At least one training session on confidential information management.
2. At least one training session on "Intellectual Property Management Audit" for responsible personnel.
3. Update the contents of the "Intellectual Property Knowledge Center" every six months and add case studies in the center.
4. Continue to pass the Taiwan Intellectual Property Management System (TIPS) certification by the Industrial Development Administration of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).
If you have any questions or suggestions regarding Wistron's intellectual property policy, please contact Email: ESG@wistron.com
