>Back to Home

How to Search Japanese Patents for Digital Cameras

We have experience and expertise in searching Japanese prior art (Japanese patent and non-patent literature) in the area of digital camera. A digital camera (also called digicam) is a camera that takes still pictures or video, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor. Many compact digital still cameras can record sound and moving video as well as still photographs. Most 21st century cameras are digital.

As can be seen from the table below, there are about 10,000 Japanese patent documents published annually that contain the word of "digital camera" in Japanese. Because there are so many Japanese patent documents filed in the area of digital camera since 1993, searching Japanese patent documents for a specific feature of a digital camera is a challenging task.

When performing a Japanese patent search, we usually take a combination of full text searches (broad search) and classification searches (focused search) approach.

Digital cameras are classified into the following fields in Japan patent system:

F-Term:
5C053 (FA08 + GB06 + LA01 + LA06 + 5C122 + DA04 + EA42 + FH07 + FH10 + FH14 + FK12 + GA01 + GA34 + HB01)

IPC:
(H04N5/93 + H04N5/91 + H04N5/225 + H04N 101/00)

FI:
(H04N5/93@Z + H04N5/91@J + H04N5/91@Z + H04N5/225@F + H04N101:00)

While classification searches are very focused if the feature(s) of a target digital camera is well defined, an examiner may miss-classify a patent. Therefore, we always use a broad, full text search with key word strings in addition to the classification search. By the combination of classification search and full text search, we are able to locate and uncover pertinent art, if there is a pertinett art.

The number of patents filed in Japan patent office in the area of digital camera is the highest in the world, therefore, Japanese patent is a very important prior art source. Based on our experience, in a validity/invalidation search, if the target patent is filed by an applicant that is not a Japanese company, the chance of uncover good art is higher. A non-Japanese company usually does not perform a Japaense search before filing a patent application because of the difficulties and cost in searching Japanese. During the examination process, an examiner may not be able to perform a thorough Japanese patent search because of the time limitation, language barrier, and limited resource.

Table 1. Number of Japanese Patent Documents Containing the Word "Digital Camera"
Vs. Year of Publication

Year	Number of Hits
2010	8620
2009	9720
2008	9578
2007	10862
2006	10046
2005	10045
2004	8740
2003	6647
2002	5405
2001	4068
2000	2868
1999	1949
1998	905
1997	266
1996	63
1995	52
1994	26
1993	19

"Note: Full text search using Japanese synonym of "digital camera".

Tips and case studies of searching Japan patents relating to digital cameras:
How to Search Japanese Patents for Digital Cameras
Search Japan patents for Digital Cameras with unique parameter setting function
Search Japan patents for Digital Cameras with image rotation during display