Designers shape the look of a car. Toyota's Intellectual Property Division protects the many rights behind each vehicle. In the shared pursuit of ever-better cars, the two sides have built a bond that runs deep.
Bonds revealed after the interview: Partners
Jikuhara
“Also, thank you for inviting us into a setting like this and interviewing us together with Simon . . .”
Hattori
“You do not get opportunities like this very often.” (laughs)
Jikuhara
“After all, the Intellectual Property Division is there to support inventors and designers, so I was truly grateful for the chance to be part of something like this.”
CBO Humphries
“Not support—partnership.
There is no hierarchy here at all. We just happen to be the people making the form, the design. But if that form has not been registered as a design, then we cannot put it out into the world.
“That is enormously important. In exactly the same way, we cannot make that form real without strong engineering and production technology. And if the form is not realized well, sales suffer too.”
“So all of us are one very, very big team. The only thing that differs is the role each of us plays. That is all.”
And if we go back to the beginning—Chairman Toyoda’s ‘Inventing our path forward, together’—I think that is a very big message. It includes the Toyota Group and the brands as well.
As a foreigner looking at Japan, I honestly think the Japanese have a tremendous inventive spirit. You can feel it in the country’s history.”
And not only in cars. You feel it in all kinds of places. So in an even broader sense, I want that message to say: let us do our best together, as all of Japan.”
Creators
CBO Humphries
“I think the world of intellectual property is an art form in its own way.
It is not just about filling numbers into an Excel sheet. They use creativity too, finding the right way to register each design.
They protect rights in a way that carries our conviction and keeps other companies from imitating it. That is another very important part of their work. That is why (he glances at the two beside him), I truly think they are creators too.
We could never do the work the Intellectual Property Division does. From the outside, it looks difficult, but also deeply interesting.”
Interviewer
“So protecting rights also requires a creator’s point of view.”
Jikuhara
“When we file a design application, the way we prepare the drawings is extremely important too. That means we have to ask designers carefully, ‘Which parts matter most?’ and then find a way to translate that into drawings. That takes a great deal of ingenuity.
If we do not do that, then it will not provide protection as a right. It loses its meaning.”
CBO Humphries
“The two of them are very modest, but they are doing remarkable work.”
Jikuhara and Hattori
(Laughs.)
CBO Humphries
“The people in the Intellectual Property Division are wonderful, truly. I am glad we were able to have this conversation.
Congratulations to both of you again on the award.”
At the April 17 award ceremony in Tokyo, Humphries commented, “Going forward, we will contribute even more to society, not only in the field of vehicles, but toward the realization of the mobility society of the future.”
Today, design and the Intellectual Property Division remain closely linked in their respective fields, helping Toyota press ahead in building ever-better cars.