CPC technology class · G03
G03C — Photosensitive Materials FOR Photographic Purposes
Photosensitive materials for photographic purposes ; photographic processes, e.g. cine, x-ray, colour, stereo-photographic processes; auxiliary processes in photography. 231 US utility patents granted 2015–2025, with the leading assignees and year-by-year filing trajectory.
- 231
- US patents granted
- G03
- Parent CPC class
- 20
- Active assignees
- -56%
- 5-yr velocity
CPC subclass G03C — PHOTOSENSITIVE MATERIALS FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC PURPOSES ; PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESSES, e.g. CINE, X-RAY, COLOUR, STEREO-PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESSES; AUXILIARY PROCESSES IN PHOTOGRAPHY — covers 231 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2025 according to USPTO PatentsView records. This subclass sits within the broader CPC class G03 (PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY), one of roughly 250 top-level technology categories in the Cooperative Patent Classification system jointly maintained by the USPTO and the European Patent Office. At the subclass level, four-character codes like G03C give the most practical resolution for tracking a specific technology domain without losing sight of adjacent filings. Every grant here has been classified by a USPTO examiner based on the technical disclosure in the patent specification.
The competitive landscape in G03C is shaped by 20 distinct companies actively filing in this space. Transitions Optical, Ltd. leads with 25 patents, followed by AcuFocus, Inc. at 30 grants and DataLase Ltd. at 15. Concentration at the top of the leaderboard indicates whether this technology area is dominated by a handful of incumbents or fragmented across many filers — a useful signal for investors evaluating competitive moats and for product teams mapping freedom-to-operate risk.
Filing trajectory matters as much as static counts. The yearly series on this page plots grants from 2015 through 2025, highlighting whether innovation in G03C is accelerating, plateauing, or cooling. Technology areas with rising post-2020 activity often reflect emerging markets or new platform shifts, while declining filings can signal mature domains where incremental improvement has slowed. Researchers, licensing professionals, and competitive-intelligence teams use these patterns — together with the top-assignee distribution — to decide where to invest, where to license, and where to avoid entanglement. All counts on this page come directly from USPTO PatentsView and reflect US granted utility patents only.
Is G03C innovation accelerating?
US utility-patent grants per year in G03C, 2015–2025 — recent five years are down 56% versus 2015–2019.
Who leads G03C?
The 12 most active assignees in PHOTOSENSITIVE MATERIALS FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC PURPOSES ; PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESSES, e.g. CINE, X-RAY, COLOUR, STEREO-PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESSES; AUXILIARY PROCESSES IN PHOTOGRAPHY — wider bars mean more grants
- Transitions Optical
Transitions Optical, Ltd.
91 patents
- Acufocus 30
AcuFocus, Inc.
30 patents
- Datalase 15
DataLase Ltd.
15 patents
- Shaanxi Normal Univer… 14
SHAANXI NORMAL UNIVERSITY
14 patents
- P V Nano Cell 8
P.V. Nano Cell Ltd.
8 patents
- De La Rue Internation…
DE LA RUE INTERNATIONAL LIMITED
75 patents
- Inguran
INGURAN, LLC
72 patents
- Idenix Pharmaceuticals
Idenix Pharmaceuticals LLC
38 patents
- Palodex Group Oy
PaloDEx Group Oy
38 patents
- Vision Ease 29
Vision Ease, LP
29 patents
- Cubicpv 22
CubicPV Inc.
22 patents
- UniversitÀ Degli Stud… 16
UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI CAGLIARI
16 patents
What this shows Transitions Optical is the most active filer in G03C, holding 25 of the 231 patents in this class. Concentration at the top signals how contestable this technology area is for new entrants.
View data table
| Rank | Company | Patents in G03C |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | Transitions Optical, Ltd. | 91 |
| #2 | AcuFocus, Inc. | 30 |
| #3 | DataLase Ltd. | 15 |
| #4 | SHAANXI NORMAL UNIVERSITY | 14 |
| #5 | P.V. Nano Cell Ltd. | 8 |
| #6 | DE LA RUE INTERNATIONAL LIMITED | 75 |
| #7 | INGURAN, LLC | 72 |
| #8 | Idenix Pharmaceuticals LLC | 38 |
| #9 | PaloDEx Group Oy | 38 |
| #10 | Vision Ease, LP | 29 |
| #11 | CubicPV Inc. | 22 |
| #12 | UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI CAGLIARI | 16 |
| #13 | Ichikoh Industries, Ltd. | 128 |
| #14 | Qurio Holdings, Inc. | 36 |
| #15 | ALPHAMICRON INCORPORATED | 24 |
| #16 | HEE Solar, L.L.C. | 12 |
| #17 | High Performance Optics, Inc. | 12 |
| #18 | National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science | 9 |
| #19 | SDC TECHNOLOGIES, INC. | 7 |
| #20 | MIRACLON CORPORATION | 6 |
About This Class
CPC subclass G03C belongs to class G03.
231 patents were granted in this class between 2015 and 2025.
20 companies actively patent in this space.
Classification System
Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) is a hierarchical patent classification system used by the USPTO and EPO.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is CPC class G03C?
How many patents have been filed in G03C?
Which company holds the most patents in G03C?
How is patent data for G03C collected?
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Explore the patent dataset
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.