Ricoh Company, Ltd. has been named to the 2012 Top 100 Global Innovators list by Thomson Reuters, one of the world's leading sources of intelligent information for businesses and professionals.
The list honors 100 corporations and institutions around the world "that are at the heart of innovation." Selection is based on four principal criteria: overall patent volume, patent grant success rate, global reach of the portfolio and patent influence as evidenced by citations. Ricoh published more than 4,200 patents in the company's fiscal year ending March 31, 2012. Overall, Ricoh currently holds more than 22,000 Japanese-issued patents and 18,000 foreign-issued patents (as of July 31, 2012).
Ricoh's sustained innovation reflects a commitment to its imagine.change. vision and supports its business solutions approach to addressing customers' most pressing challenges.
Statement from Yutaka Ebi, Corporate Vice President of Ricoh and General Manager of Legal & Intellectual Property Division:
The Ricoh Group is dedicated to innovative technological development for the creation of a 21st-century office environment while offering new customer value. We strive to offer innovative products and services to customers through our technological advances.
We are very pleased to be named as one of "Thomson Reuters 2012 Top 100 Global Innovators." Our intellectual property is integral to how we help our customers around the world every day. Therefore, we are committed to creating high-value intellectual property and have made great efforts to acquire and implement intellectual property rights that contribute to the protection and further growth of this core asset.
The organizations listed in the 2012 Top 100 Global Innovators list outperformed the S&P 500 by three percent in their market cap weighted revenue (15 percent versus 12 percent), according to Thomson Reuters' financial analysis.
"Innovation is the foundation for economic prosperity and technological advancement," said David Brown, managing director, Thomson Reuters IP Solutions. "Our Top 100 Global Innovator methodology demonstrates the insight that can be gleaned from the analysis of patent data and confirms the fact that companies focused on innovating drive growth and financial success."