July 31, 2020
NATSUHA AKIYAMA
To counter COVID-19, Fujitsu group, a Japanese information and communication technology giant, has started many supportive services for free including offering it’s intellectual property rights for free.
Freeing 40,000 Patents To Counter COVID-19
The medical crisis is becoming a great issue by COVID-19 and the vaccine and yet drugs for the terrible virus are not innovated. Fujitsu has suggested to supply it’s patents under the project of Open COVID Pledge, which will contribute to developing a new pharmaceutical and medical security management. The company also approved the program of IP Open Access Declaration Against COVID-19. To donate the beneficial rights, Fujitsu said on May 12 to disclose their approximately 40,000 intellectual assets, which includes patent rights, utility model rights and design rights.
Riding Global Big Waves
Fujitsu has joined two big international projects in Japan and in abroad. On May 7, 2020, CEO and CIPO of 20 Japanese companies, including Ajinomoto Corp., Toyota Motor Corp. and Yahoo Japan Corp. jointly announced the IP Open Access Declaration Against COVID-19, which is aimed at swift ending of corona turmoil. Companies, research institutions, lawyers, scientists, and other individuals that try to stop the spread of the disease can declare to join the project. The procedure is simple because Declarers can apply by email, and the declaration can be realized by posting the logo of this project. The project allows to utilize patents until the day when WHO declares the end of the crisis. On June 3, there were 74 declarers and the project provided 832,025 patents.
One the other hand, Open COVID Coalition is an group of scientist, lawyers, entrepreneurs and individuals around the world who have intellectual properties. To fight against COVID-19, the coalition took action rapidly. Realizing the responsibilities to discover the innovative solutions, they declared the Open COVID Pledge in April. Global corporations including Amazon.com, Inc., Intel Corp. and Facebook, Inc. have stood by the actions.
To Bring Hopeful System
Hundreds of thousands intellectual properties are released to tackle COVID-19, including IBM Watson, state-of-the-art AI system, antiviral drugs such as dengue fever and influenza, and touch-screen technologies using UV light. People will be able to use them in creating new innovations such as vaccine and magic bullets for COVID-19. The advanced programs will have positive impacts for settlement of the crisis.
Proactive Stance for COVOD-19
Fujitsu is competing against COVID-19 from various points of view. Fujitsu Cloud Technologies, decided to support Folding@home, which is a world-wide research project to analyze protein structure of COVID-19. Moreover, Fujitsu G-Search Corp. has offered two of their largest databases of science and technology literature, JDream III Search Service and JDream Expert Finder, for free until June 29, 2020. G-Search gives opportunities for researchers and scientists to come up with countermeasures to COVID-19.