Canon Inc. said Friday it will offer patents and other intellectual property rights for free, along with about 20 other companies including Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co., for swift development and manufacturing of therapeutic drugs and equipment to fight the new coronavirus pandemic.

The members joining the project, initiated by Canon and Kyoto University Professor Fumihiko Matsuda, will pledge not to assert their patent rights or copyrights against any activity whose purpose is stopping the spread of the pandemic, including diagnosis, prevention, containment and treatment.

Precision equipment maker Shimadzu Corp., Nissan Motor Co., Yahoo Japan Corp. and apparel maker Teijin Ltd. are also among the companies who have joined the initiative, called the COVID-19 Countermeasure Declaration.

Matsuda, head of the Center for Genomic Medicine at the Graduate School of Medicine at Kyoto University, will continue to call on other companies from a wide range of industries to take part in the project.

"By eliminating the need for complicated, time-consuming analysis of intellectual property rights of the declarers and license negotiations for such intellectual property rights, this declaration clears the way for the fastest possible means of research, development and manufacture of the most effective tools to combat the spread of COVID-19," Canon said in a statement.

The group's office will be based at GenoConcierge Kyoto Inc., a startup launched out of Kyoto University.

==Kyodo

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