Canon granted third most US patents in 2016

All of the major camera company's have other interests. Canon, even with it's other holdings have not made a positive rebound since the 2008-9 crash. They have good dividends, but poor stock prices (very stale). Out of all I have looked at. Olympus looks the best BY FAR. Excellent growth since the scandal. Very well run and profitable company at present.

Actually they could own all the Japan and world market share, and it would still be a very poor company to hold interest in at present.
It doesn't matter if the Japanese market is 100% Canon they are not doing something right for sure.

"The reliability, speed and ease of use that a Canon has.
DSLR's are mostly bought by people that at one point or another want to monetize their hobby or are already pro."

Calm down on the Canon selling.

To people saying that Canon makes boring cameras: This may be so, but Canon is where it is because it has the reputation of making cameras that endure and work, rather than employing the latest gizmos.
I was at a point annoyed with this, and moved to a Sony mirrorless. An admittedly fun and nice to shoot camera, but it lacked that certain something. The reliability, speed and ease of use that a Canon has.
DSLR's are mostly bought by people that at one point or another want to monetize their hobby or are already pro. These people will generally treat the camera as a tool rather than a fun toy packed with the latest tricks.
Familiarity with the controls and the menus, ease of use, reliability and a huge lens ecosystem. That is what's important to anyone that's serious about photography as a whole. Innovation for innovation's sake isn't.

Do people comprehend that canon is more than just consumer cameras?

beginning to wonder ..

It does not matter too much how many patent Canon has, but usefulness which can see from patent-sales:

IBM is #1, then Panasonic, NEC, and SONY, take a look:

https://ipcloseup.com/tag/patent-sales/

In some sense, patents are also products. products can be useful or USELESS.

To become a patent troll after the real business collapses?
Or attempt "winning" in court instead of the marketplace?

I think it's time for Canon to downsize the overstaffed R&D department and invest the savings in acquiring more modern sensors, either through an updated chip fab or acquiring Sony's sensor division.

Patents are fine and dandy, but at this rate, the vast majority of those 3,500 patents will expire before any legitimate commercial use is made of them.

Few years back, Canon showed us a small sensor which can see objects in almost total darkness.

It was then, now Canon's sensors are still behind SONY, but Canon 1" P&S got some life b/c using SONY sensor.

As Canon says always, "see impossible".

This is the equivalent for spray and prey shooting. From the 3500+ patents I wonder how many will actually see the light. If the whole R&D dept. dedicates one day to work on each patent they will need 10 years.

So many patents...so many boring cameras...

getting a patent passed to cover every country world wide is very expensive, then there is the patent application itself, that can cost thousands to draw up and the wording that covers the product or design. I had 3 pending patents to my name, But I only had enough money to get a patent that covered the EU, it cost thousands, and a company from an eastern country, copied one of my designs, and was selling it where my patent did not cover. I kept the pending patents going so I can improve or change the design. I could not compete with the far east manufacturing, I can better quality but everyone wants a cheap product, "Made in Britain" Quality means nothing to the customer, but money does.

Cudos to Canon for its R&D dpt, no matter if only a few of its works aiming to broad audience. In periods like this where the R&D expenses are declining, the fact that a manufacturer keeps a strong R&D dpt, is good news.
Mind you that I am not a Canon fan.

Sounds like Kodak. Personally I am fed up with Canon.

This is called reaction. Canon has to stop the practice of surgically selecting features for each model and most of the time leaving just one feature out so that you have to consider their top of the line model. That pick and choose attitude convinced me to drop all my Canon APS-C gear and go with Olympus. This is too little too late, at least for me.

I don't know why Canon needs patents?

...... Do they worry Sony will steal their 5 year old technology, and release a vintage camera line?

When can we expect true innovations Canon instead of inventions that solely exist on paper?

Until that time its nothing more then vapourware.

Extracted from the conclusion of Canon EOS 5D Mark IV Review:
"4K video limited to Motion JPEG
4K/30p video requires CF card
1.64x crop factor in 4K video limits FOV
No Log gamma, focus peaking, or zebras for video"

I think Canon needs to put in more patents to give something what we want. ;-)

I wonder if Canon has a patent for not putting 4k in a camera thats less than $3500...

I would hazard a guess that it is because some executives in Canon has the brilliant idea of "quantity > quality". They want to beef up their patent portfolio so they can increase their bargain power. Exactly how patent trolls are thinking.

So many patents yet such a conservative camera line, but then cameras are only a sideline for Canon nowadays.

All hail the great innovator and inventor! Or, are we just locking up technology so no-one can make us look silly with our ever-more-refined Ford F150 trucks?

Where is Nikon ?

Then why is their (Canon's) camera line so old and stodgy?

What is Samsung doing with so many patents?... Are they patenting copy cat techs stolen from others...-;)..Soon patent office will be flooded with Chinese tech patents.. Chinese and Koreans are clever in copying brands better than the original....-:).

Oh well. Just a legal formality in money-making process. Kodak invented digital camera, where are they now?

Jeepers, the folks whose main form of recreational activity is disliking Canon are taking this pretty hard.

Great way to compete - try to "own" as much IP as possible. Then Canon puts out outdated crippled gear and overcharges for it. Great way to take care of your customers by trying (not very successfully) to limit innovation/competition.

Crazy thing is "fans" of Canon think this is great for them...

Learnt in school at a young age- "quality over quantity"...

I hardly think that having over 3,000 US patents make them an innovative company. The definition of innovation is a company taking a risk in translating an idea to a tangible product that meets a specific valuable need of the consumer.

To me, it sounds like Canon's 3,000 plus US patents is a way of preventing other companys from further developing ideas.

Just picked up the 5Dmk4 over the holidays. I own 5 Sony cameras, both A and E mounts. I'm very happy to return to Canon. Keeping my A7s but there has been plenty of innovation that I've appreciated in the 5Dmk4 over the 5Dmk3.

Canon's wifi tether alone is exceptional which makes all of Sony's apps with limited functions something they can learn on how to do it right. The DR has not been a problem for me with a small exception of extreme highlights (DRO is good to have on). But overall I'm happy to be back with Canon and found their improvements many steps ahead of it's past offering including my 1Dx that is my primary workhorse.

I really find that this whole system has been innovative, and found touch screens a very very important addition to my workflow. Been using it more in my work as of late, and probably will continue to do so.

Few of patents:

"This amazing new UVgel technology incorporates several new hardware technology developments from Canon:

Advanced, “next generation” piezoelectric print head technology employing patented acoustic sampling technology that monitors nozzle performance on-the-fly during printing.
A unique LED UV curing sub-system that operates completely independently from the printing system ensuring identical jetting to curing timing for every droplet for unprecedented uniformity across the printed image.
An LED-based UV system that cures without adding any heat to the media whatsoever, making it easy to print on the thinnest, most heat-sensitive flexible media.
Continuous, on-the-fly, nozzle performance compensation facilitates confident unattended printing and reduced print waste."

3,665 patents! That is a huge WoW! I hope they got patent for sensor technology so Canon can liberate themselves from Sony.

Clicked just to read the comments. VERY disappointed in the DPR community. Y'all can do better than that. MUCH better. I'm so sad now, I'm going to go sit in a corner and cry. I'll be back later and in the meantime, I want you kids to think about what you've done (or not done). Get these comments up to snuff! I expect entertainment!

Nicely done Canon. Innovate baby, innovate.
Cmon you haters, make my blood boil, cuz I love it.

Canon is more than just cameras

And Nikon just patented how to run a 99.5 year old company into the ground before it's 100th year....
Just kidding.
Canon and Sony are the 800 pound gorrilas in the room.
Nikon will go they way of Hasseblad, Pentax, Mamiya....
The list goes on.
:-)

http://www.canonrumors.com/canon-continues-marketshare-dominance-in-japan/

DSLR Camera Markshare 2016 (Japan)
Canon 63.3% (56.2% in 2015)
Nikon 31.6%
Ricoh 4.8%
Mirrorless Camera Markshare 2016 (Japan)
Olympus 26.8
Canon 18.5% (13.6% in 2015)
Sony 17.9%

[...]seems the patents are not the only dominance. In the world biggest photomarket, japan, Canon also dominates Mirrorless in front of Sony. Only Olympus is ahead. Fuji? ...never heard of her ;)