Company News
Landscape Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Katsuhito Nagatake; hereinafter "Landscape"), which supports database marketing, has acquired an exclusive license for patents related to business cards held by Ricoh Company, Ltd. (Headquarters: Ota-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Yoshinori Yamashita; hereinafter "Ricoh"). This exclusive license allows for the identification and visualization of uncontacted individuals by using business card information in combination with external data.
Landscape will begin offering the "Meishi Shogi" feature, a proprietary visualization tool for unacquired business cards, integrated into the business card management tool "uMeishi"*1, alongside features based on the patent rights acquired through this exclusive license.
■ About the Exclusive License
The details of the exclusive license acquired by Landscape from Ricoh are as follows.
| Patent Number | Priority Date / Retroactive Date, etc. | Patent Overview |
|---|---|---|
| Patent 6299498 Patent 6614255 |
2014/6/2 | Patent for Identifying Unacquired Individuals Using Business Card Information and Information from Other Media Sources |
| Patent 6369140 Patent 6683219 |
2014/5/30 | Patent for Updating Organization Information to Distinguish Between Acquired and Unacquired Business Cards and Outputting Data According to Each Status |
| Patent 6550810 | 2015/3/16 | Patent for Visualizing Members Involved in Target Transactions Within Organization Information and Visualizing Activity Achievement Levels for Relevant Segments |
* The above patents cover business card management functions that cannot be implemented by anyone other than Landscape or third parties licensed by Landscape.
About the Unacquired Business Card Visualization Function, Meishi Shogi
Meishi Shogi is a feature that arranges client company contacts, including those not yet reached, and internal employees like a Japanese Shogi game record. It utilizes information such as business card view counts and registration numbers to visualize communication status through line thickness and color shading. It enables the identification of key personnel within an organization by project, the shortest path to contact unreached individuals, and a visual grasp of communication based on departments and job titles.
Meishi Shogi will be integrated into the business card management tool uMeishi. (Patent Pending)
Use Cases for Meishi Shogi
Traditionally, it is often difficult to contact a specific person without a direct connection. With uMeishi equipped with the Meishi Shogi feature, users can centrally manage not only their own business card exchange history but also various information collected from other sources, such as exhibitions, seminars, document requests, news articles, personnel changes, executive information from securities reports, interview data, and web crawling information. By representing connections through line thickness and color shading, users can easily identify unreached individuals and determine the connection path to target contacts.
Furthermore, it is not only configured to facilitate contact through these connection paths but also integrates with the LBC*2 corporate master data—the largest in Japan provided by Landscape—as well as behavioral history from CRM/SFA and MA tools (such as purchase/negotiation history and email click history) via the customer data integration solution uSonar*3. This allows for a comprehensive understanding of customer status, enabling more efficient sales operations.
Future Developments
Landscape will go beyond the scope of traditional business card management tools to integrate with various external data at the department and contact level linked to companies. We will build an environment that enables many client companies to achieve more efficient sales operations.
Additionally, Landscape will collaborate with Ricoh, which possesses expertise in the office services business, in the SalesTech field—starting with this business card-related area—to propose comprehensive solutions.
We have received an endorsement from Ricoh regarding the release of Meishi Shogi.
Endorsement from Mr. Tadashi Furushima, Corporate Officer, General Manager of Intellectual Property Division, Ricoh Co., Ltd.
At our company, we aim to contribute the value of our intellectual property back to society by not only utilizing our patented technologies internally but also by actively providing them to companies that can leverage them more effectively. This patented technology, which enables the identification of individuals whose business cards have not yet been acquired, was born from the perspective of users who manage a large number of business cards in their sales activities. We believe that its value will be significantly demonstrated by being incorporated into Meishi Shogi. We welcome the fact that Landscape is launching Meishi Shogi, which adopts our patented technology.
*1: About the Business Card Management Tool uMeishi
This is a business card management application that utilizes LBC, Japan's largest corporate master database with 8.2 million locations. It is the industry's first business card management tool that allows users to instantly correct and register data simply by taking a photo of a business card with a smartphone. It also provides a feature that automatically appends detailed corporate attributes.
https://meishisonar.jp/
*2: About the Corporate Master Database LBC
This is a corporate database constructed by Landscape that assigns an 11-digit management code to business establishments across Japan (approximately 8.2 million locations). LBC allows for the understanding of not only corporate attributes such as corporate numbers, industry types, and sales scale, but also capital relationships between parent and subsidiary companies, as well as head office and branch office relationships, through its corporate code system.
https://usonar.co.jp/service/lbc/
*3: About the Customer Data Integration Solution uSonar
This is a cloud-based data integration tool that allows for the consolidation and management of various information related to customers. It is equipped with the know-how for cleansing data in various formats that Landscape has cultivated over many years, as well as the LBC corporate master database of 8.2 million locations built by the company.
https://usonar.co.jp/service/usonar/
*Company names and product names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
*Meishi Shogi was a feature integrated into SideSonar (new subscriptions ended in February 2025) in conjunction with uMeishi; therefore, it is no longer available for new subscriptions. We are currently considering inheriting this feature in other applications. Please contact us if you have any requests.
*The uMeishi service was discontinued in August 2025. The business card management application currently provided is mSonar, which features significantly enhanced functionality.
