Daikin Industries has once again been selected as one of the Top 100 Global Innovators for 2021.
This is the seven year in a row that Daikin has been selected by UK-based global information services company, Clarivate Plc.
Since 2011, Clarivate has been analysing patent data to identify the world’s top 100 innovative companies and research institutions.
The evaluation comprises four criteria: volume (number of patents registered in the last five years), success (percentage of patent registrations after examination), globalisation (percentage of applications in the four major markets of China, Europe, Japan, and the United States), and influence (citation frequency in other companies’ patents).
As an air conditioning manufacturer with global business operations, Daikin allows the use of some of its patents by other companies.
For example, in 2011, Daikin granted emerging countries free access to 93 patents related to air conditioning equipment utilising refrigerant HFC-32 (R32), a refrigerant with low global warming potential (GWP), and it expanded access worldwide to all countries in 2015.