Philips 2005 Annual Report Download - page 46

Philips Annual Report 200546
Other Activities
This sector comprises various activities and businesses
notbelongingtooneoftheveoperatingdivisions.
It consists of the following main groups of activities:
Corporate Technologies, Corporate Investments, Philips
Design, Global Service Units and Miscellaneous. It also
comprises various remaining activities from businesses
that have been sold, discontinued, phased out or
deconsolidated in earlier years.
This sector employs approximately 19,000 people.
Corporate Technologies
Philips’ research and development (R&D) activities are
spread over Corporate Technologies, which invests in world-
class competencies and technologies that are relevant to
the entire Philips Group, and the operating divisions.
With approximately 4,800 highly skilled employees at
some 20 locations worldwide, Corporate Technologies
comprises organizations dedicated to research, intellectual
property and standards, system integration services,
emerging activities, and technology, competence and
innovation management.
Philips Research
Philips Research supports Philips’ operating divisions with
innovations, inventions and long-range vision, and employs
some 2,100 technology experts around the globe. Founded
in 1914, Philips Research is one of the world’s major private
research organizations, with main laboratories in the
Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United
States, India and China. Sustained strong performance in
R&D is critical for Philips to maintain or increase its
competitiveness. Through substantial investments in R&D,
Philips has created a vast knowledge base. In direct
response to the needs of the market, Philips has in recent
years adopted a more product-oriented approach to R&D,
with expenditures directed at projects with more apparent
short-term commercial prospects.
Intellectual Property & Standards (IP&S)
IP&S is responsible for managing Philips’ intellectual property
on a group-wide basis, employing around 400 people.
IP&S protects and exploits the value of Philips’ portfolio
of intellectual property rights (more than 115,000 patent
rights, 26,000 trademarks, 15,000 design rights and 1,600
domain names), e.g. through licensing. It also participates
in new standards in areas such as healthcare, lighting,
optical storage and content management.
Philips believes its business as a whole is not materially
dependent on any particular patent or license, or any
particular group of patents and licenses.
System integration services
Philips Applied Technologies helps its customers to
transform initial ideas into competitive products and cost-
efcientmanufacturingsolutionsbyintegratingnewand
existing technologies. Some 1,200 highly skilled professionals
work at eight sites across Europe, Asia and the USA.
TASS (Technical Application Software Services) develops
embedded software on demand with a workforce of some
250 people.
Emerging activities
In order to speed up the process of transforming R&D
projects into new business opportunities for Philips,
Corporate Technologies operates the Technology Incubator,
in which dedicated investments in promising value
propositions are made. Philips Software, which has been
transferred to Philips Semiconductors as of January 1, 2006,
develops and markets software solutions for mobile
Photonic textiles
Objectssuchasclothing,upholstery,oormatsandpillowswould
seem unlikely places on which to place intelligent and interactive
systems.YetbyintegratingexiblearraysofmulticoloredLEDsinto
fabrics – without compromising the softness of the fabric – Philips
Research is bringing these inert ob�ects to life, opening up a host of
applications in, for example, ambient lighting, communication and
personal healthcare.
Information on the Philips Group
Other Activities