News Release

January 5, 2021
Canon Inc.

Canon places top five in U.S. patent rankings for 35 years running and first among Japanese companies for 16 years running

TOKYO, January 5, 2021—Canon Inc. ranked third for the number of U.S. patents awarded in 2020, becoming the only company in the world to have ranked in the top five for 35 years running, according to the latest ranking of preliminary patent results issued by IFI CLAIMS Patent Services. What's more, Canon once again ranked first among Japanese companies.

Canon actively promotes the globalization of its business and places great value on obtaining patents overseas, carefully adhering to a patent-filing strategy that pursues patents in essential countries and regions while taking into consideration the business strategies and technology and product trends unique to each location. Among these, the United States, with its many high-tech companies and large market scale, represents a particularly important region in terms of business expansion and technology alliances.

Canon U.S. patent rankings 2005–2020

Year Overall
ranking		 Ranking among
Japanese companies		 No. of patents
20203rd1st3,226
20193rd1st3,548
20183rd1st3,051
20173rd1st3,284
20163rd1st3,662
20153rd1st4,127
20143rd1st4,048
20133rd1st3,820
20123rd1st3,173
20113rd1st2,818
20104th1st2,551
20094th1st2,200
20083rd1st2,107
20073rd1st1,983
20063rd1st2,368
20052nd1st1,829
  • Note:Number of patents for 2020 are based on figures released by IFI CLAIMS Patent Services. Figures for 2005 to 2019 are based on information issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Canon promotes the acquisition and utilization of intellectual property rights, not only for fundamental technologies required for next-generation products, but also such technologies as the wireless communication and image compression technologies shared by next-generation social infrastructure. In addition to patent acquisition, from starting in May 2020, Canon joined the COVID-19 Countermeasure Declaration as a founding member in order to help bring a swift end to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to this declaration, Canon has pledged not to enforce its intellectual property rights against development, manufacturing and other activities whose purpose is stopping the spread of COVID-19.

Canon contributes to the realization of technology that serves society by continuing to provide even better products, greater convenience and by contributing to the development of manufacturing.