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Patent Leaderboard
USPTO Patent Rankings Data through Dec 31, 2025
Home › Technologies › Photography and imaging

Photography and imaging Patent Leaders All Time

Primary CPC class G03 · Section G

Rankings count each patent once by its primary Cooperative Patent Classification. All-time pages aggregate the full database; year pages use patent grant year.

Recent years: 2016201720182019202020212022202320242025

Patents per Year

Patents granted per year, 1996 to 2025Bar chart with a peak of 5,566 patents in 2014.peak 5,5661996: 3,202 patents19961997: 3,117 patents1998: 4,137 patents1999: 3,884 patents19992000: 3,734 patents2001: 3,636 patents2002: 3,537 patents20022003: 3,588 patents2004: 3,651 patents2005: 2,993 patents20052006: 3,771 patents2007: 3,608 patents2008: 3,719 patents20082009: 3,851 patents2010: 5,032 patents2011: 5,097 patents20112012: 5,123 patents2013: 5,276 patents2014: 5,566 patents20142015: 5,436 patents2016: 4,959 patents2017: 4,013 patents20172018: 3,942 patents2019: 4,085 patents2020: 3,862 patents20202021: 3,492 patents2022: 3,140 patents2023: 2,928 patents20232024: 2,754 patents2025: 2,784 patents2025

Top Inventors

Rank ↑ Inventor ↕ Patents ↕ Primary Company ↕
1 Shougo Sato 744 Brother Kogyo
2 Jun Hatakeyama 368 Shin-Etsu Chemical Co.
3 Jin Wu 335 Xerox
#4 Erik Roelof Loopstra 286 Asml Netherlands B.V.
#5 Nao Itabashi 261 Brother Kogyo
#6 Ching-Yu Chang 236 TSMC
#7 Sjoerd Nicolaas Lambertus Donders 228 Asml Netherlands B.V.
#8 Naoya Kamimura 226 Brother Kogyo
#9 Hiroshi Yoshinaga 221 Ricoh Company
#10 Osamu Takagi 221 Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
#11 Yuichi Shibazaki 202 Nikon
#12 Yasushi Okabe 201 Brother Kogyo
#13 Christiaan Alexander Hoogendam 189 Asml Netherlands B.V.
#14 Bob Streefkerk 188 Asml Netherlands B.V.
#15 Johannes Catharinus Hubertus Mulkens 187 Asml Netherlands B.V.
#16 Kenji Ishii 185 Ricoh Company
#17 Nobuyuki Taniguchi 174 Minolta
#18 Satoshi Haneda 174 Konica
#19 Arie Jeffrey Den Boef 171 Asml Netherlands B.V.
#20 Guerino G. Sacripante 167 Xerox
#21 Robert C. U. Yu 167 Xerox
#22 Takahito Ueno 158 Canon
#23 Eiichi Kato 155 Fujitsu Limited
#24 Jeroen Johannes Sophia Maria Mertens 154 Asml Netherlands B.V.
#25 Hsin-Chang Lee 153 TSMC
#26 Junichi Hashimoto 153 Brother Kogyo
#27 Shigeo Miyabe 148 Canon
#28 Li-Jui Chen 147 TSMC
#29 Chin-Hsiang Lin 146 TSMC
#30 Hans Butler 145 Asml Netherlands B.V.
#31 John F. Yanus 144 Xerox
#32 Vadim Yevgenyevich Banine 143 Asml Netherlands B.V.
#33 Johannes Jacobus Matheus Baselmans 142 Asml Netherlands B.V.
#34 Toshihiko Shimokawa 142 Ricoh Company
#35 Liang-Bih Lin 141 Xerox
#36 Christophe Pierrat 139 Micron
#37 Masazumi Ito 138 Minolta
#38 Benzion Landa 131 Landa Corporation
#39 Edward G. Zwartz 130 Xerox
#40 Satoshi Kinouchi 130 Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
#41 Takamasa Hase 129 Ricoh Company
#42 Takahiro Imada 129 Ricoh Company
#43 Kazuhiko Kikuchi 128 Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
#44 Tadashi Ogawa 128 Ricoh Company
#45 Hiroshi Yamazaki 127 Konica
#46 Nan-Xing Hu 127 Xerox
#47 Nicolaas Ten Kate 127 Asml Netherlands B.V.
#48 Anthony Yen 125 TSMC
#49 Takatoshi Ishikawa 125 Fujitsu Limited
#50 Hiroshi Yamashita 124 Ricoh Company
#51 Satoshi Watanabe 124 Shin-Etsu Chemical Co.
#52 Akira Suzuki 123 Ricoh Company
#53 Koji Ichikawa 123 Sumitomo Chemical
#54 Masayuki Endo 123 Sumitomo Electric Industries
#55 Martinus Hendrikus Antonius Leenders 123 Asml Netherlands B.V.
#56 Naoki Iwaya 123 Ricoh Company
#57 Raj D. Patel 123 Xerox
#58 Junichi Matsumoto 122 Ricoh Company
#59 Ippei Fujimoto 120 Ricoh Company
#60 Takeshi Watanabe 120 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
#61 Yutaka Ikebuchi 120 Ricoh Company
#62 Kathleen M. Carmichael 119 Xerox
#63 Takuya Seshita 119 Ricoh Company
#64 Hiroshi Hosokawa 118 Ricoh Company
#65 Takeshi Uchitani 118 Ricoh Company
#66 Masaaki Sato 117 Canon
#67 Yasuo Fukamachi 117 Brother Kogyo
#68 Hiroki Mori 116 Brother Kogyo
#69 Hiromasa Takagi 116 Ricoh Company
#70 Masaki Ohashi 116 Shin-Etsu Chemical Co.
#71 Hans Jansen 115 Asml Netherlands B.V.
#72 Kenji Nishi 115 Nikon
#73 Joost Jeroen Ottens 114 Asml Netherlands B.V.
#74 Masaaki Yoshikawa 114 Ricoh Company
#75 Yoshiki Yamaguchi 114 Ricoh Company
#76 Yuji Arai 114 Ricoh Company
#77 Burn Jeng Lin 113 TSMC
#78 Hideshi Nishiyama 113 Brother Kogyo
#79 Kazushi Watanabe 111 Canon
#80 Donald S. Rimai 110 Eastman Kodak
#81 Robert E. Dickerson 110 Eastman Kodak
#82 Damodar M. Pai 109 Xerox
#83 Katsuya Murakami 109 Canon
#84 Masaru Sasago 109 Sumitomo Electric Industries
#85 Morio Yagihara 109 Fujitsu Limited
#86 Hiroshi Ito 107 Seiko Epson
#87 Santokh S. Badesha 107 Xerox
#88 Dinesh Tyagi 106 Eastman Kodak
#89 Koji Hasegawa 105 Shin-Etsu Chemical Co.
#90 Ken Ikuma 104 Seiko Epson
#91 Masanari Morioka 104 Canon
#92 Masaaki Nakai 104 Minolta
#93 Shinn-Sheng Yu 104 TSMC
#94 Edward F. Grabowski 103 Xerox
#95 Masami Tomita 103 Ricoh Company
#96 Yuhua Tong 103 Xerox
#97 Atsushi Numagami 102 Canon
#98 Naomasa Shiraishi 102 Nikon
#99 Shuutaroh Yuasa 102 Ricoh Company
#100 Hiroyuki Nagasaka 101 Nikon

Top Companies

Rank ↑ Company ↕ Patents ↕
1 Canon 20,138
2 Ricoh Company 8,088
3 Eastman Kodak 7,047
#4 Fujitsu Limited 6,920
#5 Xerox 6,677
#6 Fujifilm Business Innovation 4,615
#7 Brother Kogyo 4,266
#8 Asml Netherlands B.V. 3,698
#9 Samsung 3,644
#10 Nikon 3,340
#11 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba 2,841
#12 Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha 2,235
#13 Kyocera Document Solutions 2,223
#14 Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha 2,096
#15 TSMC 1,902
#16 Seiko Epson 1,806
#17 IBM 1,713
#18 Konica 1,685
#19 Agfa-Gevaert Nv 1,638
#20 Minolta 1,584
#21 Fujifilm 1,377
#22 HP 1,372
#23 Konica Minolta 1,300
#24 Carl Zeiss Smt Gmbh 1,148
#25 Konica Minolta 1,124
#26 Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. 1,095
#27 Sony 1,049
#28 Lexmark International 1,017
#29 Oki Data 933
#30 Mita Industrial Co. 903
#31 3M 869
#32 E.I. Du Pont De Nemours And 794
#33 Hitachi 772
#34 Pentax 768
#35 Minolta Co. 767
#36 Konishiroku Photo Industry Co. 766
#37 Polaroid 723
#38 Olympus Optical Co. 687
#39 Kyocera Mita 663
#40 Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co. 656
#41 Micron 631
#42 Panasonic 610
#43 Sumitomo Electric Industries 561
#44 Tokyo Electron Limited 537
#45 Hoya 489
#46 Asml Holding N.V. 476
#47 Dai Nippon Printing Co. 465
#48 Mitsubishi Electric 463
#49 Coretronic 452
#50 Applied Materials 437
#51 Intel 416
#52 Kla-Tencor 415
#53 AMD 399
#54 Nec 385
#55 Hoechst Gmbh 349
#56 Unknown 337
#57 Nippon Kogaku K.K. 326
#58 Jsr 319
#59 Infineon Technologies Ag 292
#60 Casio Computer Co. 290
#61 Ciba-Geigy 285
#62 Noritsu Koki Co. 278
#63 Sumitomo Chemical 278
#64 Fuji Photo Optical Co. 274
#65 United Microelectronics 272
#66 Texas Instruments 268
#67 LG 256
#68 Sk Hynix 250
#69 Foxconn 249
#70 Rohm And Haas Electronic Materials 224
#71 Kao 223
#72 Siemens Aktiengesellschaft 218
#73 Mitsubishi Chemical 217
#74 Sanyo Electric Co. 211
#75 Hp Indigo B.V. 208
#76 BOE 205
#77 Basf Se 201
#78 Shipley Company, L.L.C. 192
#79 Mitsubishi Paper Mills Limited 189
#80 Synopsys 189
#81 Oki Electric Industry Co. 180
#82 Nissan Chemical Industries 179
#83 Olympus 176
#84 Cymer 165
#85 AT&T 164
#86 Hitachi Koki Co. 161
#87 Lg Innotek Co. 161
#88 Toshiba 160
#89 Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co. 154
#90 GE 154
#91 Fuji Electric Co. 151
#92 Hitachi Chemical Company 150
#93 U.S. Philips 145
#94 Molecular Imprints 143
#95 Oce Printing Systems Gmbh 142
#96 Hynix (Hyundai Electronics) 136
#97 The Mead 136
#98 Toray Industries 136
#99 Hoechst Celanese 135
#100 Lsi 135