Where does Canon Kabushiki Kaisha rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), Canon Kabushiki Kaisha ranks #3 of 49,997 assignees by granted-patent volume, the same sort as the companies listing and top-holders ranking. See /methodology/#corpus-placement.

How many patents does Canon Kabushiki Kaisha hold?

Canon Kabushiki Kaisha holds 34,378 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025, spanning 322 technology areas.

What is Canon Kabushiki Kaisha's Innovation Score?

Canon Kabushiki Kaisha has an Innovation Score of 75.5 out of 100 (top 1% of the corpus). This composite metric weighs portfolio volume (40%), grant velocity (20%), technology breadth (25%), and claim depth (15%).

What technology areas does Canon Kabushiki Kaisha focus on?

Canon Kabushiki Kaisha's top technology area is H04N (Pictorial Communication, e.g. Television) with 12,328 patents. Grants appear in 322 CPC subclasses total.

Is Canon Kabushiki Kaisha's patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

Canon Kabushiki Kaisha's recent grant velocity is -19% compared to the prior five-year period (grant years, not application filing dates). Grant activity has slowed relative to earlier years.

What does claim depth mean for Canon Kabushiki Kaisha's patents?

Canon Kabushiki Kaisha's patents average 15.1 claims each. This is an aggregate descriptive count from the grant record; it does not establish claim scope, legal strength, enforceability, or design-around risk.

How is the Canon Kabushiki Kaisha patent data sourced?

All patent data comes from USPTO PatentsView, a public research dataset maintained by the United States Patent and Trademark Office covering US granted utility patents from 2015 to 2025.

USPTO 2015–2025 USPTO PatentsView Foreign Corporation

Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 34,378 granted patents across 322 technology areas, recorded in grant years 2015–2025. Grant-trend analysis is cross-referenced to USPTO Patent Public Search; it does not measure application filings, current R&D, or legal strength. Primary class: H04N (Pictorial Communication, e.g. Television).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

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The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Canon ranks #3 of 49,997 US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 34,378 patents across 322 technology areas.

#3
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: Top 1%
by Innovation Score (75.5/100): 15.1
avg claims per patent: -19%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R3 · Foreign Corporation #3 · 34,378 grants

GRANTS-MEGA · TOP-DECILE · CLEAR-GAP · CPC-BROAD · INNOV-STRONG · CLAIMS-RICH · TYPE-FRNCORP · VEL-DOWN · BOOK-FULL

GRANTS-MEGA 34K grants
TOP-DECILE #3/49,997
CLEAR-GAP LG
CPC-BROAD H04N · 322 areas
INNOV-STRONG 75.5/100
CLAIMS-RICH 15.1 claims/avg
TYPE-FRNCORP Foreign Corp
VEL-DOWN -19% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: LG Electronics Inc. (±1,771 grants)

Instrument codes from this assignee’s USPTO PatentsView grant sheet: volume band, corpus rank, photo-finish peer, lead CPC, Innovation Score, claim depth, assignee type, velocity, and book completeness. Not a USPTO rating of patent strength.

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
Capital ONE Services · near

76
International… · near

76
Marathon Petroleum · near

76
Canon · this assignee

76
Stryker European… · near

75
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows Canon's Innovation Score is 75.5/100 (top 1% of the PatentsView-derived corpus). The chart places that score against the nearest Innovation Score peers plus corpus poles, not a reprint of the volume ranking.

How Canon's grant cadence moved

Between 2020–2024, Canon Kabushiki Kaisha received 14,500 grants versus 17,881 in 2015–2019 (-19% equal-window velocity, below median growth). Across complete PatentsView years, output peaked in 2015 at 4,170 grants and bottomed in 2024 at 2,385. Lead class H04N accounts for 35.9% of the portfolio across 322 subclasses.

Canon's three-year grant acceleration

From 2019–2021 to 2022–2024, Canon Kabushiki Kaisha moved from 9,998 to 8,096 grants (0.81x the prior three-year total, a multiple, not a CAGR). Among 3,296 tracked assignees with ≥100 grants and ≥20 prior-period grants, that multiple ranks #1,810. See the growth leaderboard.

Samsung

106,890
International Bus…

72,926
Canon ◀

34,378
LG

32,607
Taiwan Semiconduc…

31,041
Apple

30,560
Qualcomm Incorpor…

30,354
Intel

27,498
Microsoft Technol…

24,392

What this shows Canon sits among the ten largest US patent holders, a tier dominated by electronics and semiconductor multinationals.

Other top-10 patent holders

The other largest US assignees by granted patent volume.

Leaders in H04N (Pictorial Communication)

Other assignees with the most granted patents in Canon's primary technology class.

Assignees with similar portfolio profiles

Two PlainPatent-derived peer sets for Canon, neither rank-band nor same-CPC leaders (those blocks stay above).

Similar innovation score

Nearest assignees by Innovation Score (76 here).

Marathon Petroleum Company LP 76 Stryker European Operations Limited 75 International Business Machines Corporation 76 Capital ONE Services, LLC 76

Similar claim depth

Nearest assignees by average claims per patent (15.1 here).

Florida State University Research Foundation, Inc. 15.1 avg Epcos AG 15.1 avg Roche Sequencing Solutions, Inc. 15.1 avg Koenig & Bauer AG 15.1 avg

Canon's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

Composite of portfolio volume, grant velocity, technology breadth, and claim depth (0–100)

76 Top 1% higher than 99% of 49,997 US assignees

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US assignees. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source USPTO PatentsView, PlainPatent Innovation Score · 2015–2025

USPTO utility patent grants by year · 2015–2025

Grants by year

Teal-shaded recent years (2020–present) versus the 2015–2019 baseline. Full figures in the table below.

View data table

Canon Kabushiki Kaisha patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	4,170	12.1%
2016	3,688	10.7%
2017	3,332	9.7%
2018	3,097	9.0%
2019	3,594	10.5%
2020	3,298	9.6%
2021	3,106	9.0%
2022	2,771	8.1%
2023	2,940	8.6%
2024	2,385	6.9%
2025partial year	1,997	5.8%

Which technologies does Canon Kabushiki Kaisha patent most?

H04N - Pictorial Communication, e.g. Television 12,328

G03G - ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; Magnetography 7,776

G06F - Electric Digital Data Processing 5,662

G06T - Image Data Processing OR Generation, IN General 3,282

B41J - TYPEWRITERS; Selective Printing Mechanisms, i.e. Mechanisms Printing Otherwise Than From A FORME; Correction OF Typographical Errors 3,133

G02B - Optical Elements, Systems OR Apparatus 2,525

G03B - Apparatus OR Arrangements FOR Taking Photographs OR FOR Projecting OR Viewing THEM; Apparatus OR Arrangements Employing Analogous Techniques Using Waves Other Than Optical WAVES; Accessories Therefor 1,705

G06V - Image OR Video Recognition OR Understanding 1,549

H04L - Transmission OF Digital Information, e.g. Telegraphic Communication 1,476

G06K - Graphical Data Reading ; Presentation OF DATA; Record CARRIERS; Handling Record Carriers 1,345

B65H - Handling Thin OR Filamentary Material, e.g. Sheets, Webs, Cables 1,301

H10F - Inorganic Semiconductor Devices Sensitive TO Infrared Radiation, Light, Electromagnetic Radiation OF Shorter Wavelength OR Corpuscular Radiation 1,254

A61B - DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; Identification 1,231

H04W - Wireless Communication Networks 1,226

G03F - Photomechanical Production OF Textured OR Patterned Surfaces, e.g. FOR Printing, FOR Processing OF Semiconductor DEVICES; Materials THEREFOR; Originals THEREFOR; Apparatus Specially Adapted THEREFOR; 1,041

Top 15 of 322 technology areas

Where it ranks

Overall rank by patents

of 49,997 tracked assignees

Innovation Score

75.5 out of 100

View all rankings →

Data Source

USPTO PatentsView, US granted patents 2015–2025

How is Innovation Score calculated?

What to do with this data

Canon Kabushiki Kaisha's patent record in context - here's where to go next.

Canon Kabushiki Kaisha's lead technology class is H04N (Pictorial Communication, e.g. Television), 35.9% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore H04N
Ranked #3 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha is a top-10 global holder - see how it stacks up against Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., another of the largest patent portfolios. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 75.5/100 blends volume, velocity, technology breadth, and claim depth. How it's calculated

Figures reflect USPTO PatentsView grant data through May 2026; pending applications not yet granted are not counted.

Data sourced from USPTO PatentsView - official U.S. government patent data. See our methodology for computation details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainPatent

Disclaimer: This information is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Data is sourced from the USPTO PatentsView database. Consult a qualified professional before making decisions based on this data.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Data sources used on this page

USPTO PatentsView - the disambiguated bulk patent-grant, assignee, and CPC data this page's figures are derived from. patentsview.org
Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) - the joint USPTO/EPO classification scheme used to group patents by technology area. cooperativepatentclassification.org
USPTO Patent Public Search - the official interface to verify the status of any individual patent. ppubs.uspto.gov

Compiled by PlainPatent, US Patent Intelligence Editorial Process · May 15, 2026

Every figure on PlainPatent is rendered directly from USPTO source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on USPTO source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 2026.