Journey

The three areas that Canon Medical focuses on are “diagnostic imaging,” including CT, MRI, ultrasound, and X-ray diagnostic equipment; “healthcare IT,” which covers medical data collected in clinical practice, such as patient health and medical information; and “bioscience,” including blood analysis and COVID-19 testing.
More than 500 new inventions are created annually by our R&D centers in Japan and abroad, and patent applications are filed in various countries, with a focus on Japan, the U.S., Europe and China, forming a worldwide patent portfolio of more than 10,000 patents (surveyed in 2023, including patent applications pending).

For this reason, the Intellectual Property Department’s personnel are expected to study and learn on a daily basis.
This study can take many forms. As part of our efforts to understand these inventions, sometimes we ask the inventor questions while drawing diagrams on a whiteboard to elicit answers, sometimes we visit a laboratory to have the inventor operate the actual equipment, and sometimes we visit a manufacturing facility on the same site to see the actual product from a distance and get a feel for its size, movement, materials, etc. Once back at our desks, we read internet sites and technical literature recommended by the inventors, and discuss and confirm our own understanding with our colleagues, supervisors, and patent attorneys. This allows us, little by little, to decipher these difficult technologies and make them our own.
As we gain a better understanding and are able to discuss further development of the invention, inventors come to rely on us, and we feel satisfaction in being involved in acquiring the rights to them.
Canon Medical handles a wide variety of advanced technologies, and the scope of these technologies is getting broader and broader.
There is always new study to be started, but for the personnel that work in our Intellectual Property Department, to broaden the scope of our technical fields is to increase the satisfaction our work provides. All of us are working together and learning more and more every day.

Before R&D begins, intellectual property-related contract clauses are defined in consultation with the medical institution or university on how the intellectual property to be created should be handled. When opinions differ, we discuss in detail how social implementation based on the details of research and inventions would be mutually beneficial to each other and to society. When we reach an agreement on terms that satisfy both parties, we feel a sense of accomplishment that we have contributed to the development of research and medicine.
Once research and development has begun and active discussions are held between our engineers and medical professionals, we pick up all the ideas generated in the discussions as inventions and promptly proceed with the necessary procedures, such as filing applications with the patent office. Occasionally, Intellectual Property Department personnel also participate in discussions with the medical professionals alongside the engineers, expressing their views as intellectual property experts and working together to create the invention.
Intellectual Property Department staff try to gain a first-hand understanding of the medical needs behind the technology and inventions when speaking directly with doctors who work on the front lines of medicine on a daily basis.
What amazing benefits will be brought to patients and medical professionals when these technologies and inventions are implemented in society, and how can they contribute to medicine as a result?
Doctors will give you first-hand information that you cannot get from the internet or books.
Through these experiences, we have renewed and deepened our respect for medical professionals and feel a sense of pride in our technology, and, as the custodians of important inventions, we will continue to obtain the rights for them in a responsible manner.