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Kobe Steel receives Thomson Reuters 2014 Top 100 Global Innovators Award

Selected for the First Time as One of the World’s Top 100 Innovative Companies

February 5, 2015

TOKYO, February 5, 2015 — Kobe Steel, Ltd. has been named to the Thomson Reuters 2014 Top 100 Global Innovators list. In recognition of this achievement, Thomson Reuters presented Kobe Steel yesterday with a trophy for the award. This is the first time that Kobe Steel has been recognized as a Thomson Reuters Top 100 Global Innovator.

The program honors 100 of the world’s most innovative organizations. The IP & Science business of Thomson Reuters, one of the world’s leading sources of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, evaluates companies and organizations using a series of metrics to analyze their patent activity and protection of intellectual property. The organizations are recognized for their innovation generated by the creative intellectual property derived from their research activities. The Thomson Reuters Top 100 Global Innovators program began in 2011. The criteria for the award are as follows:

1.Overall patent volume:

Organizations with 100 or more patented new inventions from the most recent five years

2.Patent grant success rate:

Ratio of patent applications that have been granted

3.Global reach:

Number of patents registered in four major world markets (Europe, the United States, China and Japan)

4.Patent influence:

Frequency of patents cited by other companies in the patenting of their inventions

Thomson Reuters said that “of the four criteria, Kobe Steel received high scores on patent grant success rate and global reach. In particular, it received its highest score in the patent grant success rate. These factors led to Kobe Steel’s first selection to the Top 100 list.”

Of the Top 100 innovators, 39 are based in Japan, an increase from 28 in the previous year, overtaking the United States for the first time.

Kobe Steel will continue to actively pursue research and development to create new value. At the same time, in the global market it will strive to protect and utilize the intellectual property it has generated.