patents

The United States government has opened an investigation into whether Arashi Vision Inc, the parent company of Insta360, violated several of GoPro's patents.

RED's lawsuit against Nikon for infringing on its video compression patents has been dismissed, effectively giving Nikon permission to continue allowing compressed internal RAW video recording in its cameras.

Canon successfully saw the removal of over 1,500 Amazon listings of third-party printer toner from vendors that it believed infringed on its patents as part of an aggressive campaign to protect its intellectual property.

YouTuber and software engineer Theo from t3.gg has called out RED for preventing other companies from making cameras that can compress video captured in 4K RAW or higher.

In May, RED Digital Cinema filed a lawsuit against Nikon, alleging that the data compression technology it uses in the Z9 camera violated its patents. Nikon has responded and argues RED's patent should never have been approved to begin with.

RED has sued Nikon for illegally copying its data compression technology. The lawsuit asserts that Nikon infringed on its patents through capabilities granted to the Nikon Z9 in the recent firmware 2.0 update.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted Apple a patent for a compact camera that uses a set of prisms to "fold" light and compress the amount of space needed for a telephoto lens. This type of lens is typically referred to as a "periscope" lens in smartphones.

According to a report from LetsGoDigital, the Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi has patented three new smartphone designs with huge camera arrays developed in a collaboration with Samsung.

Canon has been busy: it has recently applied for a number of patents for its mirrorless system, including a new version of the popular 100mm f/2.8 macro, two fast wide-angle lenses, and an RF cinema camera mount.

Google is reportedly in the process of acquiring the light field camera startup company Lytro with a price tag somewhere in the range of $25 million to $40 million.

If you look at patents awarded as a measure of innovation, Canon is one of the most innovative companies on Earth. In 2016, Canon was granted the third most US patents of any company, beating out the likes of Intel, Microsoft, Apple, and even Google.

Back in August 2014, we reported on the legal battle between photographer Peter Wolf and a company called Capstone. Wolf had received three patents on a method of distributing sports photos online. The problem was, the patents described common workflows that countless photographers use around the world.

The latest development today will have those photographers resting a bit easier: the courts have ruled that the patents are invalid because they aren't inventive enough and because they simply describe convention steps that many people use.

As photography tech continues to improve, camera manufacturers are constantly looking for the next headline-worthy advance they can implement. And for Fuji and Canon, that means improving your viewfinder to integrate features like optical zoom and better coverage.

Earlier this week, Egami came across an Olympus patent that (as far as we can tell) is truly one-of-a-kind, utilizing a unique feature that would allow you to get the best exposure possible in any scenario.

Think subject tracking in camera is impressive? Future Canon digital cameras may have image stabilization systems that can track stars. At least, that's what a recently published Canon patent seems to suggest. The company may also be working on technology that can produce higher resolution photographs by shifting the camera sensor.

Recently published patent applications filed by Nikon offer a glimpse into what the company may be working on for future DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. The three technologies spotted are: illuminated lens mounts, dual lens contacts, and a hybrid viewfinder.

Panasonic is claiming a major breakthrough in the world of camera sensors, saying that it has doubled the color sensitivity with a new technology called 'Micro Color Splitters.'

The folks over at Chipworks have come out with an interesting infographic that shows the top U.S. patent holders in 2012, and compares them to the same list from 2000. Beyond just gawking at the increase in the sheer number of patents held by each company, we were pleased to see camera manufacturers making a strong showing.

If how innovative a company is were determined solely by the number of patents received, then Canon is one of the most innovative companies in the world. For an eighth consecutive year, Canon ranked first among all Japanese companies in terms of patents issued by the United States government.

One chapter in the saga of Kodak's escape from bankruptcy has come to an end. The company announced today that it has completed the sale of its valuable imaging patents for $525 million to a group of Silicon Valley companies. The deal involves more than 1,100 patents related to the capturing, manipulating, and sharing of digital photographs.

High dynamic range (HDR) mode is becoming a standard feature in newer digital cameras and smartphones. By snapping multiple photographs at different exposure levels, the camera can automatically generate an image that captures a greater range of light and dark areas than a standard photograph. However, the technique does have its weaknesses. Artifacts appear if any changes occur in the scene between the different shots, which limits the scenarios in which the technique can be used.

Apple wants to overcome this issue by implementing an HDR mode that only requires a single exposure. A recently published patent shows that Apple is well on its way to doing so.

Yesterday we shared some news courtesy of the Wall Street Journal that Kodak had received a generous bid for its patent patent portfolio of over $500M. This was good news for Kodak, seeing as $500M was the mark the company had to hit in order to receive $830M in exit financing that would play a crucial role in helping Kodak dig its way out of bankruptcy.

However, all we knew at the time was that the bid was being put forth by a "consortium of bidders" out of Silicon Valley. Well, as it turns out, that consortium is being led by none other than the unlikely team of Apple and Google.

Over the last year, no news has been good news for Eastman Kodak. The company's slow and painful climb out of bankruptcy has involved everything from corporate greed to lost patent wars and sub-par auction outcomes. But just a few weeks ago a flickering light emerged at the end of the tunnel for Kodak in the form of $793M in conditional financing.

In fact, since we last reported on the story, the loan amount has gotten even bigger. That sizable $793M has been upped to $830M, every dime of which Kodak desperately needs to get its hands on if it ever intends to escape bankruptcy. But as the saying goes: there's no such thing as a free lunch -- and definitely not one worth $830M. The banks that have agreed to help Kodak out made the financing conditional: Kodak doesn't get the money unless the company's long-awaited patent sale exceeds $500M.

Kodak has finally been thrown a lifeline. Yesterday, the beleaguered photography company announced that it had convinced banks to loan it $793 million in order to climb out of bankruptcy by the first half of 2013. The loan agreement comes with one big catch: Kodak must be able to sell its extensive collection of patents for at least half a billion dollars.

It wasn’t too long ago that Kodak filed multiple patent infringement lawsuits against Apple in a scramble …

Kodak might be on its deathbed, but that’s not stopping the company from launching a new volley …

If you’re curious as to which prime lenses Canon has marked for refreshing, recently filed patents may hold the …

Major camera makers including Olympus, Samsung and …