Intellectual Property
Intellectual Property Initiatives
The Yamaha Group views intellectual property as one of its key intangible assets, and believes that proper protection and use of the intellectual property belonging to both the Group and other parties is essential for accelerating innovation and inspiring creativity and also making social development faster and healthier. Based on this belief, the Group has proceeded to protect its business through the appropriate acquisition and utilization of intellectual property rights. We have also been fostering a culture of respecting the intellectual property rights of others and developing an organization that is built on this respect.
The Yamaha Group has established the Group Intellectual Property Policies & Rules to define its basic policies for the management of intellectual property. These policies guide our efforts to appropriately acquire, protect, and utilize important intellectual property created during the course of our business activities, such as those pertaining to new technological concepts, designs, products, or services. At the same time, we respect the intellectual property rights of others as set out by the Compliance Code of Conduct, and ensure that when using such rights we obtain them through legitimate means and procedures.
Through the efficient and effective management of intellectual property, we strive to maximize the earnings generated by our intellectual property. Meanwhile, we are exhaustive in our efforts to minimize risks associated with intellectual property rights in order to improve the economic viability of management while ensuring social responsibility.
Promotion System and Intellectual Property Strategies
Yamaha Corporation continuously reinforces the alignment between business and technology strategies with intellectual property strategies through dialogue and collaboration with business divisions, and is comprehensively advancing the acquisition and use of rights, reduction of risks, and protection and enhancement of brand value.
Furthermore, the Yamaha Group is developing a Groupwide intellectual property management system to steadily realize these strategies. Intellectual property managers have been appointed at each Group company to ensure the proper management and utilization of intellectual property. Additionally, the Intellectual Property Division at Yamaha Corporation supports the appropriate implementation of Groupwide intellectual property management, such as through regular monitoring of Group companies and reporting to the Board of Directors.
Intellectual Property Management
Patents
The Yamaha Group actively utilizes patent data to provide greater insights to members of management and business divisions, thereby improving the quality of technology and development strategies based on medium- to long-term business prospects while promoting value creation in line with these strategies.
In particular, the Yamaha Group strives to achieve both efficiency and high-quality analysis in patent and other research and analysis activities by advancing intellectual property analysis that utilizes AI tools and other methods. At the same time, the Group is advancing an approach to ambidextrous management from an intellectual property perspective, such as building a patent network that contributes to strengthening product competitiveness in key fields (adding dimensions to intellectual property) and researching potential applications of patented technology in new business fields (researching intellectual properties). The Group also endeavors to further enhance intellectual property risk management, including patent clearance.
In addition, the Yamaha Group conducts analysis and revisions of rights held both in Japan and overseas from perspectives including the current state of utilization and future business possibilities in an effort to advance the creation of evaluation standards to improve the effectiveness of its intellectual property investments.
Through these initiatives, the Yamaha Group is working to improve the value of intellectual property by making rational decisions on the role of intellectual property management, and contributing to the development of unique Yamaha products and to the establishment of a competitive advantage.
The total number of patents and utility models for practical use held by the Yamaha Group in Japan as of March 31, 2026, was1,692. The total number held overseas, principally in the United States, Europe, and China, was 2,252 on March 31, 2026, making a global total of 3,944.
Designs
The Yamaha Group views designs as an important element of product differentiation and branding. As such, the Group is promoting the appropriate protection of products and other assets by acquiring and utilizing design rights while striving to strengthen the Yamaha brand and its business and product brands. As part of these efforts, led by Yamaha Corporation, the Group has been advancing the acquisition of design rights in countries and regions where there are many victims of counterfeiting and exercising design rights in a timely and appropriate manner in coordination with local Group companies and other parties.
As of March 31, 2026, we held 1,409 design rights, with 469 in Japan and 940 overseas.
Trademarks (Brands)
Yamaha’s logo has been an important intellectual property, and a symbol of our trust and responsibility toward customers and society, since the establishment of the Company. The Yamaha Group has implemented rules governing brand display methods and is working to maintain and improve brand value through appropriate use based on management standards related to Yamaha brands and under the guidance of the Brand Strategy Committee, a Companywide brand management organization chaired by the President and Representative Executive Officer
Furthermore, the Yamaha Group has trademarked its brand in almost every part of the world and conducts preliminary surveys and acquires rights via the appropriate methods for the names of its products, services, and technologies.
As of March 31, 2026, the Yamaha Group held 2,182 trademarks in Japan and 7,629 trademarks overseas, which combined make for a global total of 9,811 trademarks.
Copyrights
In addition to patents, designs, and trademarks, the Yamaha Group has produced a large number of copyrighted works in the sound, music, and other fields. Copyrights used in digital musical instruments are a particularly important form of intellectual property that increases added value to products and services, and the Group manages and utilizes these rights, taking legal action when necessary.
Furthermore, as copyrights for creation, analysis, and manner of usage expand due to advancing digital technology such as generative AI, the Yamaha Group places importance on appropriate and trustworthy business activities based on trends in Japanese and overseas rules and guidelines. To address such changes to the business environment, the Group has developed Guidelines for Handling Copyrights that demonstrate the procedures for copyright usage and approaches to clearance, making continuous revisions, including points related to topics such as AI development, learning, and model use. Meanwhile, thorough steps are taken to ensure the proper use of copyrighted works by improving intellectual property literacy at all Group companies via methods that include Group education and training programs and provision of related information.
Use of Intellectual Property and Counterfeit Product Countermeasures
The Yamaha Group regards intellectual property as key intangible assets of its businesses and promotes its wide-ranging use, including through licensing and other means, from the perspective of enhancing the value of products and services and supporting business development.
Accordingly, to protect brands and market integrity, Yamaha is implementing ongoing countermeasures for combating unauthorized usage of Group intellectual property and counterfeit products in order to eliminate the disadvantage for consumers while ensuring their safety and maintaining their trust in the Yamaha brand.
In June 2025, Yamaha announced that the first-instance judgment has been upheld on appeal, finalizing penalties for businesses that contributed to the manufacture, sales, and distribution of counterfeit Yamaha PA analog mixers (such as the MG16XU.). Additionally, the Yamaha Group is monitoring the online distribution of counterfeit goods that has expanded in recent years, taking swift action to address such violations of its intellectual property rights via coordination with relevant authorities and local Group companies.
Education and Training
The Yamaha Group conducts employee education and training programs to promote the appropriate use and management of intellectual property.
In addition to holding annual copyright seminars for employees whose duties involve musical works and other copyrighted materials, the Yamaha Group provides targeted training as necessary for divisions such as development and marketing, tailored to each unit’s responsibilities on topics including intellectual property strategy, patents, and copyright, with the aim of improving employee literacy on intellectual property. Furthermore, regulations and reward systems are in place with regard to the rights (patents, designs, etc.) to new inventions produced as part of work. The Group also holds educational sessions for employees to ensure they are able to appropriately use intellectual property held by the Group or other parties, striving to instill awareness of respect for intellectual property.
External Recognition
In fiscal 2026, Yamaha Corporation received an invention award in the 2025 National Invention Awards program sponsored by the Japan Institute of Invention and Innovation for inventions related to its AFC (active field control) Enhance sound field support system. This invention was developed to meet the needs of users who want optimal control of reverberation for each location they perform in through technologies that control reverberation in a space using audio equipment. AFC Enhance has been used in a total of more than 200 facilities around the world, and is contributing to the invigoration of the audio equipment industry by driving the introduction of numerous new amplifiers and speakers.
The Yamaha Group protects and utilizes the results of such research and development as intellectual property rights while also promoting the filing patent applications for Yamaha technologies that lead to the growth of existing business.