Olympus 2004 Annual Report Download - page 53

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Trends in Number o f Pa tents Held by Co untry
(Number o f pa te nts, thousand)
0 0 0 1 0 2 0 3 0 4
O thers
United States
Japan
Trends in Number o f Pa tents Held by Business G ro up
(Number o f pa te nts, thousand)
0 0 0 1 0 2 0 3 0 4
Medical Systems G roup
Imaging Systems G ro up
Research and Development
Institute
Life Sc ience G roup
Industrial Systems Gro up
4
3
2
1
1 0
8
6
4
2
O LYMPUS 2 0 0 4 5 1
ing those originally developed by other manufacturers. In con-
trast to this, O lympus strateg ically uses the acquired patents o n
gastro endo sco pes that are its leading medical equipment prod-
ucts to maintain market share and make it mo re difficult for o ther
manufacturers to enter the market.
Significance of Patent Portfolio to Company Business
>O lympus actively pursues a po licy o f co nverting research and
develo pment results into patented intellectual pro perty assets.
The results of this policy o ver the past five years are shown in the
graphs below, bro ken do wn by country and area of business. In
the future, the co mpany will be mo re selective in applying for
do mestic patents, and will strive to increase the number o f
acquired fo reign patents. Beg inning in 2004, it will strengthen
its effo rts to o btain patents not o nly in the United States, but also
in the g ro wing market o f China, where it also has manufacturing
o peratio ns.
The number and ratio of O lympus’ acquired patents in each
business area at the end of fiscal 2 0 0 4 are shown in the table
belo w. Although O lympus o wns patents with business po tential
in each area, patents in the imaging and medical areas, that
form the co re of its business, account fo r 7 0 % o f all O lympus’
acquired patents. In additio n, O lympus has applied for numer-
o us patents thro ugh its research and development centers in
areas of business that sho w future pro mise.
No te: The informatio n co ntained herein pertains only to patents directly
o wned by the O lympus Corporation; patents owned by subsidiaries a nd affil-
iated c ompanies are not included in the number o f published pa tents or
acquired patents.
Imaging Medical Life Industrial Research a nd
Systems Systems Sc ie nc e Systems De velo pme nt
G ro up G ro up G ro up G ro up Institute To tal
Japan patents ............................................................................ 1,934 2,239 416 348 966 5,893
% to total (%)........................................................................... 3 3 3 8 7 6 1 6 100
U.S. patents .............................................................................. 1,267 1,002 158 201 593 3,221
% to total (%)........................................................................... 3 9 3 1 5 6 1 8 100
O ther patents............................................................................. 7 2 2 7 3 1 12 6 6 1 1 4 6 3 7
% to total (%)........................................................................... 1 1 4 3 1 8 1 0 1 8 1 00
Total......................................................................................... 3,227 3,504 686 615 1,673 9,751
% to total (%)........................................................................... 3 4 3 6 7 6 1 7 100
olympus ar04 fs-07/06K 04.8.4 14:30 ページ 51