History

As Canon's R&Ds began to expand into fields other than cameras and optical equipment, the Patent Section was established in the Engineering Department in concert with the consolidation of the R&D Division's structure. At that time, the Patent Section consisted of only four people, and its main job was to act as an intermediary between in-house inventors and outside patent attorneys. Subsequently, it was expanded with the goal of ensuring that the outcomes of R&D resulted in patents, and a system was created to promote intellectual property activities in line with the development of businesses.

The main purpose of Canon's intellectual property activities is not to obtain licensing income, but to support the development of businesses. By holding a large number of strong patents, however, we have been able to file infringement suits against third parties who infringe our patents, and contributed to the development of businesses by making cross-licensing agreements with competitors securing freedom to operate for our businesses. In a cross-licensing arrangement, the stronger patent holder can obtain licensing income and Canon's single-year licensing income surpassed 10 billion yen in 1990, and has remained high ever since.

The start of the 2000s saw the emergence of patent assertion entities (PAEs) in the U.S. PAEs purchase patents but do not make products with them and earn income primarily through patent litigation against operating companies. Since then, PAEs have filed a number of lawsuits against Canon as well, but we have resolutely stood up against baseless and frivolous lawsuits and have scored total victories in several cases.

At Canon, ideas that lead to patents are called (patent) proposals. These ideas are documented by the inventor in the form of a proposal. The job of IP departments is to capture the essence of the invention— i.e., to capture a technical concept from the proposal. Once the technical concept is captured, IP staff members or patent attorneys draft the patent description and file the patent application. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Canon filed around 10,000 patent applications a year. But with the demand for shorter development periods, it has become found that there exist some proposals that were not drafted based on sufficient consideration. Another issue was the increase in cases where the process of converting ideas into technical concepts significantly altered the details of patent descriptions from the original proposal. Dealing with these cases was taking up a large amount of resources. As a result, in 2001, Canon started examining proposals at the ideation stage to ascertain the essence of the inventions, including their patentability potential. The results are assessed and decisions are made on how far to refine the details of each proposal in drafting a patent description. This system of appraising and enhancing ideas took root and is still in place today.

Part of the Corporate Intellectual Property and Legal Headquarters was spun off in 2003 to form Canon Technical Information Services. With the dramatic increase in the number of patent applications and the growing importance of patent search services, Canon Technical Information Services began providing patent search services to Canon Group companies worldwide with the aim of strengthening and streamlining patent search operations.

We have strengthened our patent enforcement activities against compatible consumables that infringe Canon patents and actively filed litigation in many countries around the world.

In an era where everything can be connected and the number of functions implemented in a single product has expanded dramatically, it becomes essential for a company to collaborate with other companies in different industries. In anticipation of such trends, Canon proactively started a series of license negotiations with companies in different industries, particularly overseas IT companies, in the 2010s. By entering into cross-license agreements early on with not only business competitors but also non-competitors possessing necessary technologies, Canon has been able to secure freedom for its future business endeavors and reduce litigation risks.