Nobuo Tanaka

Senior General Manager, Deputy Head of Intellectual Property & Design Center
Yokogawa Electric Corporation (Japan)

Nobuo Tanaka is a seasoned Intellectual Property (IP) and business strategist at Yokogawa Electric Corporation. Since April 2026, he has transitioned into a strategic leadership role focused on high-impact initiatives, including the development of integrated strategies for technology, business, and intellectual property.

In his current capacity, Mr. Tanaka leverages his extensive experience to drive Yokogawa’s most critical projects, such as global IP strategy & governance, third-party disputes, and M&A support. This shift allows him to focus directly on creative strategy formulation and complex cross-border negotiations, areas where his global expertise is most effectively utilized.

Previously, as the Head of the Intellectual Property & Design Center from 2023 to 2026, Mr. Tanaka was responsible for the entire Yokogawa Group’s IP and Design activities. Under his leadership, Yokogawa drastically transformed its IP function to be strategically oriented, which led to the company receiving the Intellectual Property Achievement Award from the Japan Patent Office in 2023.

Before Mr. Tanaka joined Yokogawa Electric in April 2019, he was at Sony Corporation where he was chiefly responsible for utilizing patent assets and managing teams responsible for patent licensing, including joint licensing programs (e.g., patent pools) where he was a sponsors committee member for one of the joint license programs with a third party. Mr. Tanaka joined Sony Corporation’s IP division in 2009, working on patent prosecution, litigation and licensing until 2012.  From 2012 to 2016, he served as a senior manager at Sony Corporation of America. In this role, his responsibilities included patent transactions, litigation, patent prosecution (including post-grant procedure) and consulting for a multi-party licensing program.

From 1999 to 2003, Mr. Tanaka worked for NEC as an engineer in the telecoms field. From 2003 to 2008 he was a member of the NEC Intellectual Asset Licensing Department, where his responsibilities included patent licensing and prosecution.

Mr. Tanaka is a Japanese patent attorney. He has a BS and an MS from Kyoto University.  He is a member of JPAA, LES, and AIPLA.