Canon Intellectual Property

Canon's growth as an R&D-led company is grounded in its development of new markets and customer segments by using original technologies to create high-quality products and services that are differentiated and attractive. Against this backdrop, Canon's intellectual property activities emphasize supporting business development. In order to support the development of our business, Canon's IP Division formulates and pursues IP strategies that look ahead to the next 10-20 years while anticipating emerging trends.
While we do not change our basic approach to IP activities, we modify our tactics in order to keep up with the changing times.

Strategies for Canon Intellectual Property Activities

*All numbers are for the Canon Inc. IP Division.

Canon is distinguished by the fact that our intellectual property activities permeate the entire company. Canon has a tradition of appointing executives with a background in IP, which means that intellectual property activities are firmly integrated and their significance is well understood throughout the company. As a result, our IP Division is able to work closely not only with R&D but with all divisions, from production to marketing, in promoting related activities.
With all divisions acting as a team to create and protect intellectual property, Canon is able to carry out world-class IP activities.

Canon actively promotes intellectual property (IP) education throughout the company. In addition to a well-developed training system, we provide an environment where employees can acquire IP-related knowledge and practical skills through daily on-the-job training (OJT). This style of IP education raises the IP consciousness of each employee, leading to the creation and protection of innovative ideas and the strengthening of the company's overall IP capabilities.

In Canon Group, Canon Inc. works with Group companies (Sales companies and R&D companies) to formulate a set of global management rules, specifying matters such as roles and responsibilities in the handling of intellectual property and procedures for setting IP policy.
This approach enables us to coordinate IP activities across the group and collaborate as needed in legal proceedings and licensing activities. By working together we make effective use of Canon Group's patents and strive to maximize profits by optimizing the patent portfolio.

At Canon, intellectual property departments communicate routinely with their counterparts at business and R&D departments at every level from staff members to the top executives. One distinctive feature of these communications is the Headquarters Executive Liaison Meeting. The Headquarters Executive Liaison Meeting is a gathering of relevant department heads, who are also company directors, and other executives to discuss IP strategies that contribute to business growth and to decide on specific IP activities in business and R&D departments. The meetings deepen collaborations between headquarters and accelerate decision-making, which allows for the realization of timely IP activities that are integrated with business and R&D departments.

Canon holds an annual in-house Invention Awards ceremony to honor inventions that support important growth potential for the company and to encourage the continuing creation of inventions that lead to innovation. The Invention Awards system is a historic award program established in 1986 to recognize individuals who have made “outstanding contributions to activities related to inventions, devices, designs, and activities related to Canon’s industrial property rights.” Chaired by the Group Executive of the Corporate Intellectual Property and Legal Headquarters, the award is decided after fair deliberation by the Patent Review Committee, which consists of Chief Executives, the Group Executive of the R&D Division, and committee members appointed by the chair. The President and the Group Executive of the Corporate Intellectual Property and Legal Headquarters hand out certificates to the award winners.
The aim of winning an award is one of the motivating factors for the Canon Group’s developers.

Inventions born in Canon receive high-level recognition from outside the company. Since receiving its first award in 1958^＊, Canon has won numerous awards at the National Commendation for Invention, sponsored by the Japan Institute of Invention and Innovation. These commendations recognize inventions that have made significant contributions or are expected to make significant contributions in the future due to their outstanding merit.

＊Visit the history page

You can find out more about Canon's intellectual property in the publications listed here.

• Sustainability Report
• Form 20-F
• Annual Reports
• CANON FACT BOOK, THE CANON FRONTIER