Konica Minolta Wins Incentive Award in 2013 Award for 3R-Oriented Sustainable Technology

-Proprietary Technology for Recycling Cerium Oxide Polishing Material Innovates Rare Earth Usage at Production Sites

 

Konica Minolta is pleased to announce that the company has been recognized by the Japan Environmental Management Association for Industry (JEMAI) with an “Incentive Award” in “2013 Award for 3R (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle)-Oriented Sustainable Technology” in recognition of its initiative in recycling cerium oxide, a rare earth element used as polishing material for glass.

Along with sponsorship by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, JEMAI annually gives “Award for 3R-Oriented Sustainable Technology” to technologically advanced businesses and initiatives that contribute to reducing, reusing and recycling in society. The honor system of JEMAI encourages sustainable innovations and intends to promote resource-recirculation businesses across industries. “Incentive Awards” are given to businesses or initiatives, with less than three years of implementation, which have exhibited outstanding originality and great growth potential in terms of new business creation.

Cerium oxide used in polishing glass needs to be discarded and replaced with a fresh batch. Konica Minolta has developed an innovative technology to reclaim and reuse the used cerium oxide. In the award, this initiative has been highly recognized for promoting resource recirculation with high productivity and at low cost. Konica Minolta’s innovation brings such benefits as ease of processing within the production site, significantly high recycle rate, retaining the same quality as new material after recycling, and no need for big-budget capital investment or running cost for implementation.

The recycling technology has now been introduced at Konica Minolta’s optical device production sites in Japan and overseas, dramatically reducing the volume of waste generated within the process, with 95% recycling rate for the overall polishing process.

Konica Minolta was honored at the award ceremony in Tokyo on October 18, 2013.

Under the communication message “Giving Shape to Ideas,” Konica Minolta continues working on creation of groundbreaking innovations that contribute to the development of recycle-oriented society.

Ricoh to pay Kodak $76M to settle patent fight

Japanese electronics giant Ricoh Co. Ltd. has agreed to pay Eastman Kodak Co. nearly $76 million to settle a legal dispute over patent licenses and royalties.

Rochester-based Kodak sued Ricoh in April 2012, claiming that Ricoh was stiffing it on royalty payments due from its use of Kodak patents. Among its claims were that once Ricoh bought camera maker Pentax Imaging Systems in 2011, it owed back royalties since Pentax had never signed any digital imaging licensing agreement with Kodak. In the suit, Kodak sought unspecified dollar damages.

Ricoh, for its part, argued that that it had paid Kodak everything owed by the patent license agreement for its own products, and that there’s no proof Pentax ever infringed on Kodak’s patents.

The case went to trial this week in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, with a jury ruling for Kodak, said company spokesman Christopher Veronda.

But in a stipulation signed by the companies this week before the start of the trial, Ricoh and Kodak both agreed that regardless of the trial’s outcome, Ricoh would pay Kodak $75.8 million — roughly $69 million to settle various claims, as well as $6.9 million in interest.

Kodak sold its portfolio of roughly 1,100 digital imaging patents in 2012 as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy. However, the Ricoh settlement money will go to to it and not the new owners of the patents since Kodak owned them during the nine years between Ricoh first signing a licensing agreement and its Pentax takeover, Veronda said.

 

 

MDANEMAN@Democratand

Chronicle.com

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