Canon Intellectual Property
Interview with the Developers
What is your stance on IP activities?
Ueno (hereinafter abbreviated as "U"):The most important and largest aspect of IP activities is to dissuade other companies from copying or imitating the technologies we develop on our own.
Another powerful aspect of these activities is that the patents we acquire can be used as bargaining chips with other companies and that they create a foundation for our company to develop technologies without restrictions.
Kamiya (hereinafter abbreviated as "K"):In the past, I was so caught up in product development that patents felt like an extra burden to me. But at some point, my thinking changed and I began to regard patents as a motivation rather than some kind of quota. Now I quite enjoy the patent process. Patents are not something you work on in isolation: rather, patents are usually produced when overcoming a challenge or solving a roadblock in the course of design and development operations and working on new underlying technologies. Consequently, if you see patents as a barometer that you are doing good work or as a reward for yourself when you've achieved something, patent activities can be rather fun. I feel that patents, instead of being something you have to produce, are something that comes along with solving a development challenge.
Takeda (hereinafter abbreviated as "T"):IP activities feel similar to checking your email every day.
There is a long period before something you made becomes a final product. Nevertheless, IP activities are necessary in all phases of this period. They involve things like historical patent searches when you want to make something new to see what has been done before, including what other companies have done. If the research proves that you are truly onto something new, patent activities engage with the present, such as coming up with ideas. And if you include the future in your perspective, you can make technology forecasts about what might happen in the coming years. IP activities span the entire time axis — past, present, and future, so they feel like they are fully integrated into my work routine.
How do development and intellectual property departments work together on a day-to-day basis?
U:I believe we have developed a good relationship. The intellectual property department is always willing to listen to us, and they rarely turn us down when we ask for their advice. They also provide us with perspectives that we in development would have never noticed. They come up with viewpoints we would have never thought of such as, "Your main claim is this, but if you add something like this to the scope of the claim, you are more likely to acquire the patent.' I believe it is in some part due to the cooperation of people in the intellectual property department that we can successfully obtain patents.
K:The intellectual property department definitely helps us out with historical patent searches and at the stage of acquiring patents. But they also engage with us at the stage of fostering ideas in a kind of inquisitive dialogue where they throw all kinds of questions at us. As we explain our thoughts, IP personnel ask us many questions, and in the process of answering those questions, ideas coalesce and become more tangible. With experience, we've gradually become able to read the intent of their questions and we can understand what they are suggesting or querying when they ask "If the Patent Office were to say this, can you answer them? or "Is it possible to express your claim more broadly?" We don't always get what they are implying at the time, but when we get a rejection notice and have to respond, we finally understand why they had asked us this thing or that thing. We are often grateful for their assistance after the fact, when we realize that we ultimately obtained far-reaching patent rights.
I've become quite familiar with patents now, so I don't ask for help as much anymore. But when I'm having trouble wording a claim, if I can convey an image of what I want to say to them, they almost immediately come up with a broad claim in realistic patent language. They really are professionals at what they do.
Intellectual property awareness has disseminated throughout development departments, but what kind of organizational building and initiatives are you taking?
U:In general, each department carries out its own patent activities, and every department has a patent leader. Each department devises its own patent initiatives. For example, they might set key themes and work on invention discovery, or they engage in invention discovery based on suggestions from staff members who have been trained in idea generation or conceptualization.
K:When I get an idea that seems patentable, I create a subcommittee on my own initiative and select people to work on the patent with me. For instance, if I'm designing a product and I think I have a promising idea, I'll write out a few idea seeds and present them to the subcommittee members. Then we'll discuss them with the members involved in the design and expand on the idea together. We make use of activities like these to get younger employees to understand the pleasure of producing patents. We are also committed to sharing ideas, rather than keeping them to ourselves. If we get five people together, for example, we work until we have nurtured five people's worth of ideas.
T:We have made patent applications by, on our own initiative, bringing together people from different departments. It's fun to talk about the same product with other people, with patents as the starting point.
U:From my understanding, many companies have specialists who write up submitted ideas into claims. Canon is unique in that our work in development doesn't end with submitting an idea. Rather, we follow through with completing the claim and description and then submit them. I'm sure some of our new hires have a negative impression of patents, but once they get used to patents and enjoy them, they are able to understand their significance.
T:Definitely when I was a new employee, I found the writing of a patent itself to be quite arduous. In my early days, the intellectual property department would sometimes send back my drafts saying they were rubbish! But I believe everyone at Canon keenly senses the importance of patents by having written patents themselves. Moreover, writing a patent is itself similar to designing and assembling a product, but in the world of written compositions. For example, it helps, when working on a technology intended as the foundation of products five or 10 years into the future, to write out the details of the technology in the form of a flowchart — instead of leaving it in the realm of imagination — to lend more realism to the idea. This helps when describing the content in a patent claim or when applying the technology to a real product, because you can more easily envision how best to implement the technology. From this standpoint, I think writing patents is very useful, and because we do these sorts of activities, awareness of intellectual property within Canon is naturally quite high.
K:Patents are hard, but doing the work of completing the claim and the description and filing the patent, rather than just coming up with ideas, gives you a real sense of ownership. I think that everyone in the company has a good understanding of what patents are. It's certainly true among our development teams.
T:Something else that sets Canon apart is that when you join the company you are given a Canon-exclusive booklet called Dashi no Moto (The Elements of Soup Stock). The booklet provides information on idea generation and conceptualization, and it's very useful in the beginning for forming a general understanding. Manga-style explanations are used to describe the concepts and it feels like a collection of the wisdom of our predecessors. And the illustrations are cute. (laughs) When I'm stuck for ideas, I reread the booklet and always get some inspiring suggestions. It's been around for over 10 years, but the content is updated to keep up with the times, such as adding information on optical technologies and revisions to the Patent Act.
What do you do to generate good ideas?
K:Sometimes when I've been busy with work and want to take a break, I let myself think about patents. Since you can generate ideas in your mind, I sometimes ruminate on patents when I'm walking to work or in the sauna. Thinking about work in the sauna doesn't help me relax, but I can concentrate on patents without getting tired. The problem with the sauna approach is being naked when an idea pops into your head. I have to rush back to the changing room and jot down my idea. (laughs) What I do believe is that you won't come up with good ideas sitting at your desk at work for an hour, dwelling on things and stressing out. It's far better to be contemplating about possibilities in the back of your mind as you go about your routine, and when an idea jumps out, to write it down.
T:When we are generating ideas in a group setting, I bring sweets and hand them out to create an atmosphere where we can talk openly and frankly. Young employees actually have lots of good ideas, but they are often hesitant about speaking up in a meeting. I think the reason for this is that older employees tend to say dismissive things like, "Yeah, but doesn't that technology already exist out there?" or "That's nothing new" or "Everyone does it like this".
This is why we've banned negative comments and we start by receiving all ideas in a positive light. We devise ways in meetings to encourage young employees to present loads of new concepts.
K:From the viewpoint of group activities, a good aspect of patents is that people will really get into exchanging opinions centered on the seeds of an idea. I'm in mechanical design, but I often get involved in idea generation discussions together with people from electronics and firmware. The mechanical side will say let's submit a patent from this point of view, and the firmware side will say let's submit a patent from this other point of view. If we are able to combine the two perspectives, the patent will be far more compelling. In a way, it's almost like product design.
T:Another thing I do is have people draw pictures. Patents are written documents, but it's hard to imagine concepts sometimes with just words. I'll say "Try drawing a picture of it. Don't worry if it's messy." By drawing a picture, the person drawing may recognize a better approach on their own or others can derive more ideas after understanding the original point. Starting out by drawing a picture of how an idea is structured is great, because it brings together everyone's awareness like a common language. After all, if you have people from different fields working together, there will be times when field-specific terms don't get across. I think pictures are a powerful aid in such situations.