Toyota Motors and Canon, as well as more than 20 other Japanese companies, will open their patents and other intellectual property objects in Japan and abroad for free use to help to fight against COVID-19 by joint efforts.

The main goal is to help enterprises and research organizations to develop new medical devices, as well as methods for diagnosing and treating the disease.

The use of patents for inventions, utility models, industrial designs, and copyrights will be free if they are intended to fighting against coronavirus. This situation will continue until the World Health Organization officially announces the end of the global pandemic.

It is expected that several hundred thousand patents will be open by the joint efforts.

Among them, one of Toyota’s useful inventions, which will be open to general use, is a technology that meant to collect respiratory data from coronavirus patients without physical contact with them. Thus, doctors can diagnose and monitor patients in a safer way.

In addition, Shimadzu’s new compact X-ray equipment may also be useful. It is already known that patients with COVID-19 can be diagnosed by a picture on lung x-rays. Smaller devices can help hospitals take x-rays more efficiently, as well as determine the severity of the disease in each patient.

We hope that the Japanese initiative will be able to attract other companies, as well as stimulate the development of new inventions that will help overcome the crisis in the world.