Customer Spotlight: Mizkan Holdings

How this 210 year old company is using patent intelligence in their development of a more sustainable food product business.

Mizkan Group (Mizkan for short)

Manabu Konishi, New Business Development

Mizkan Group is a company with a long history of manufacturing and selling food products that stretches back to vinegar production during Japan’s Edo period. Today they strive to better support consumers’ daily lives while maintaining a deep respect for local food culture around the world. In 2019, Mizkan launched a new brand "ZENB" based on the concept of contributing to the health of people, society, and the earth. They’ve received a lot of attention as a long-established company with a 210 year history now embarking on a new project looking towards the future of food.

Project Overview

For this edition of customer spotlight, we spoke with Mr. Manabu Konishi who is part of the new business development team responsible for the ZENB project. He shared how he used competitive intelligence from Amplified as a patent liaison to support the research and development behind ZENB.

Business Insight

Mizkan was founded in 1804 to manufacture and sell food seasonings starting with vinegar and food products such as natto. They’ve been expanding abroad aggressively, with overseas revenue now making up more than half of Mizkan Group's total sales. Examples include manufacturing and selling Bertolli brand pasta sauce in North America and Branston sweet pickles and Sarson’s malt vinegar in the UK.

In March 2019, Mizkan launched a new brand called "ZENB", a concept food brand that seeks to enhance the health of people, society, and the Earth by bringing out the natural flavors and nutrition of ingredients without relying on animal-based flavorings or additives. They use the entire plant, including parts often discarded like skin, core, and pods, to reduce food loss and environmental burden.

Intellectual Property Role

Mr. Konishi is in charge of intellectual property for the ZENB project, acting as a "patent liaison" between the R&D and IP teams. He has two main roles:

  1. Patent Filing: Securing IP rights and discussing with researchers every three months to identify patentable inventions.
  2. Competitive Intelligence: Using competitors' patents as a source of business intelligence to assist researchers in overcoming R&D hurdles.

He emphasized the importance of incorporating prior art early in the R&D process to enhance development speed and help engineers organize their thinking.

Competitive Intelligence Journey

Initially, the systematic use of competitive intelligence from patents was a concept proposed by Mr. Konishi. After discovering the wealth of information in patents, he recognized their potential in enhancing R&D. This approach has greatly benefited Mizkan, especially in exploring new categories swiftly and efficiently.

Choosing Amplified

Mr. Konishi chose Amplified for three main reasons:

  1. User Interface: Amplified has an intuitive UI that doesn’t require complex search strings.
  2. Search Accuracy: High accuracy in search results enhances the value of competitive intelligence.
  3. Processing Speed: Amplified's fast loading times facilitate quick adjustments during searches, improving overall efficiency.

Since using Amplified, he has noted a reduction in psychological and practical hurdles associated with patent searching, allowing team members to utilize patent information more effectively in their R&D efforts.

Future Aspirations

Looking ahead, Mr. Konishi aims to expand the usage of Amplified across the company. He believes that increased familiarity with patent information will lead to proactive research and innovative approaches within the team. Features such as viewer and annotation capabilities will enhance collaboration and knowledge sharing.

He envisions creating a unique patent database tailored for Mizkan, incorporating internal knowledge alongside patent information, and raising awareness of how to leverage patents to solve R&D problems.