We’re number 3! Canon Places 3rd in IFI CLAIMS 2019 U.S. Patent Rankings

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The Only Company in the World to be Ranked in Top Five for 34 Years
MELVILLE, NY, January 15, 2020 – Aligning with its mission of empowering innovations, Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, is proud to announce that its parent company, Canon Inc., was granted 3,548 patents by the US Patent and Trademark Office and maintained its third-place ranking for patents granted in 2019 according to IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, a leading producer of global patent databases. With this year’s ranking, Canon has become the only company in the world to have ranked in the top five for the number of patents granted for 34 consecutive years. Additionally, Canon has once again ranked first in patents among Japanese companies for the 15th consecutive year.

These patents continue to demonstrate Canon’s contribution to science and technology which are used to develop fundamental technologies designed to drive innovation and support customer and business needs.
“As technology...

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Unless patents are used to make products directly or actively licensed out to someone else to make products, their end effect is not only being un-useful but actively harmful in preventing others from making the item in question :(

Not necessarily.

R&D costs money. Should companies not protect that investment? During R&D it's never a guarantee that a product will ultimately make it to market. That's why they call it "research". During the research phase, the patent is applied for. Why? because it's the only legal proof that a company has actually worked on the idea and the date in which they did.

having a large patent portfolio and patenting everything that you research also helps mitigate patent trolls.

Now if we all had time machines, we could wait until the product came out and then go back in time to patent it but that would get confusing for sure ;)

Not only that, we have no idea how many patents into making one product. For instance super telephotos, Canon could take the core knowledge of multiple patents to make the next generation of super telephotos. There are probably 100's if not more patents that go into something like a camera.

So no, this "high road" of .. if you're not going to use it don't patent it.. just doesn't work in the real world.

That all being said, Canon patents far more than the other camera company.
 
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Not necessarily.

R&D costs money. Should companies not protect that investment?
Isn't that the same with any negative externality?

No one expects a money making machine to stop polluting the environment unless it is forced by some external factors (e.g. law enforcement or deteriorating sales due to damage to its brand image).
 
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Optics Patent

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Unless patents are used to make products directly or actively licensed out to someone else to make products, their end effect is not only being un-useful but actively harmful in preventing others from making the item in question :(

Call me biased as a patent attorney but most patent applicants are motivated to innovate and invest in innovation by the prospect of being able to control their invention and not having it knocked off bu those who didn’t invest.

If you like innovation, thank the patent laws
 
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Optics Patent

Former Nikon (Changes to R5 upon delivery)
Nov 6, 2019
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Isn't that the same with any negative externality?

No one expects a money making machine to stop polluting the environment unless it is forced by some external factors (e.g. law enforcement or deteriorating sales due to damage to its brand image).

That’s some mighty fine word salad gibberish there!
 
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Your hallucination is duly noted.
Are you going to claim that a registration of a patent does not increase costs of doing business for those who weren't voluntarily involved in this transaction?

As if patent trolls don't exist, for example? Or companies never patent ideas independently developed by others?
 
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Optics Patent

Former Nikon (Changes to R5 upon delivery)
Nov 6, 2019
310
248
Are you going to claim that a registration of a patent does not increase costs of doing business for those who weren't voluntarily involved in this transaction?

As if patent trolls don't exist, for example? Or companies never patent ideas independently developed by others?

My patent doesn’t increase your cost to compete, using existing technology or your own invention. Don’t steal mine.

Trolls and bad patents are separate issues that suggest you know your core point is flawed. Make your best point and stick to it.
 
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