Compensation Films and Retarders: Who Holds the Patents
Concentrated at the top. The five leading assignees together hold 45.4% of all 8,709 records in scope, with a leader at 1,407 records well ahead of fifth place at 295. Filings peaked at 390 in 2017 and had fallen to 137 by 2021. Over the following three complete years the total dropped a further 35%, to 89 in 2024 — the most recent year that can be read as finished, since publication lags filing by roughly 18 months and 2025-2026 figures will still fill in.
- 1NITTO DENKO CORP16.2%
- 2FUJIFILM CORP11.4%
- 3LG CHEM LTD10.4%
- 4SHANJIN OPTOELECTRONICS (SUZHOU) CO LTD4.0%
- 5SHARP KK3.4%
See the full compensation films and retarders analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions about this landscape
Who are the leading patent holders in compensation films and retarders?
The dataset ranks 100 assignees by patent family count, with the leading company holding 1,407 records and the top five together accounting for 45.4% of all 8,709 records in scope. This is a display-supply-chain-heavy field, dominated by companies that make polarizer, film and liquid-crystal materials rather than display-panel makers themselves. Beyond the top five, filing counts drop off quickly into a long tail of companies with far fewer records each, so the field is concentrated at the top but not closed to new entrants.
Is patent filing in compensation films still growing?
No — filings peaked at 390 in 2017 and have declined since, falling to 137 by 2021 and down a further 35% to 89 by 2024, the most recent year that can be treated as complete. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so they should not be read as confirming a continued decline. The overall pattern is a mature field with reduced but still active filing rather than an emerging one.
What is the difference between a compensation film and a quarter wave plate in these patents?
Both terms appear in the search scope because they describe overlapping optical functions: a quarter wave plate is a specific retardation design (typically a quarter-wavelength phase shift) used for circular polarization control, while a compensation film is the broader category covering any film engineered to correct viewing-angle or color-shift issues in a display stack. Many patents in this dataset claim a film that performs both functions simultaneously, which is why the search string treats them as overlapping rather than separate categories. The IPC classification data shows most of these films are also tied to specific stretching or coating processes, so the functional claim and the manufacturing claim tend to travel together in the same filing.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Compensation Films and Retarders covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.