Canon doesn’t innovate? Well, they’ve ranked top 5 for patent grants every year for the last 34 years
Jan 17, 2020
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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People give Canon a lot of hassle for “not innovating”, but the truth is, Canon’s probably filed more patents than any other camera company out there. According to IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, Canon has become the only company in the world to have ranked in the top five for the number of patents granted every year for an incredible 34 years.
Canon also says that they’ve ranked number 1 amongst Japanese companies for the 15th consecutive year. While not all of these patents have turned into real tangible products that you can go and buy, it certainly demonstrates that they’re at least exploring new and innovative ideas.
Canon ranked 3rd for 2019, during which they were granted 3,548 patents by the US Patent and Trademark Office.
As technology continues to evolve, we too will continue exploring new areas and future innovation opportunities. Canon is proud to be in the top three patent holders as it reflects our dedication and commitment to delivering innovative ideas and solutions to meet market and customer demands.
– Seymour Liebman, Canon USA
We post quite a few Canon patent filings here on DIYP as we find them. Some of them are pretty awesome, some end up in real gear we can buy, and some are… well, kinda weird. But with the sheer volume of them, nobody can really say that Canon isn’t at least trying, even if their products don’t always seem to implement too many revolutionary ideas.
You can read the full Canon press release here.
[via Canon Watch]
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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13 responses to “Canon doesn’t innovate? Well, they’ve ranked top 5 for patent grants every year for the last 34 years”
There is almost zero correlation between patent grants and innovation.
totally wrong..patents are the result of innovation by the engineers working for that company
a patented idea making it into a final product is another topic…which is related to market studies, r&d costs, feasibility etc.
but a patent is the direct result of an innovatve idea
Doesn’t mean anything when they are number one in feature holding.
Taking grants doesnt mean much, other then they use up a lot of free money from the government.
That’s not what that means, it means they were in the top 5 for most granted patents. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/patent
This is misleading:
Of course, yes! But this covers all Canon’s businesses from consumer to professional, cameras, lenses, scanners, printers, health care products, etc.
To compare Canon VS other camera companies (supposing this article has only interests in that), you would need to get the breakdown number of these patents and only consider those applying to the imaging business (camera + lenses).
that isn’t “innovation” that’s patent trolling… lol!
I’m sure Apple has a million patents over the last year, I still don’t call them innovative…
Canon stopped innovating after the 5DmkII. That’s the last time they made a camera that changed the marketplace.
Filing patents and innovate are two separated things.
Patents exists mainly to block competition.
Why develop and sell innovation, when you can block other brands and continue to sell the same products, while optimizing production costs ?
Funny to see so much hate around…?
Inovation is great if you actually do something with it. Kodak invended the first digital camera.
Innovation was hold back by profit matter