Sony Corporation

Intellectual Property has played a central role in Sony’s business strategy since its foundation. Sony has always regarded inventions as important assets that have enabled the corporation to occupy a privileged position within the Industry. Sony has actually filed the very first invention on an audio device, just a couple of days after its establishment in 1946. This story tells us how Sony has always encouraged engineers to secure intellectual property.

While inventions are important in one hand, creating new industries is also an important agenda for Sony on the other hand. In this regard, Sony, along with its partner companies, has dedicated itself to establishing industry standards by leading the industries through intellectual property. Examples are the standards for CD, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, HDMI, ATRAC, DVB, ATSC, Wi-Fi, NFC, Display Port, and so forth. Sony has also contributed to formation of patent pools for the purpose of accelerating market growth. The introduction of standard technologies such as MPEG Video, Audio, and/or System is just an example. Sony’s leading-edge technologies have been widely applied in various types of products, not only for Sony but also for other companies in a variety of industries.

In order not only to protect its own business but also to attract other companies into new industries as a market leader, Sony holds a massive number of patents worldwide: approximately a hundred thousand patents and applications. It is noteworthy that, with respect to the number of patents granted in the US within a year, Sony has continuously been in the top 10 ranking since 2006, and had more than three thousand patents granted in 2014, when it occupied the ranking’s 4th position.

While retaining and making the power of intellectual property more sophisticated, Sony also believes some patents would have better use if owned and applied by other companies and their products or services, especially when not using those intellectual property assets. Sony expects some innovative and creative companies to acquire some of Sony’s patents, and to possibly become a future partner within the Industry. Through IAM Market, Sony aims at providing to such companies opportunities to review patents available for sale from time to time.

For further information, please visit Sony’s IP/tech pages. Patents are currently available within the following categories: