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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/mobile-camera-lens-module-design-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Camera Lens ModulesMobile Camera Lens Module Patents: Who Holds the Claim Space
- 32.4% of all 3,471 records sit with just five assignees, so the top of this field is genuinely concentrated rather than fragmented.
- Filings fell 24% from 2021 to 2024 (274 to 209), the last span the data treats as complete once publication lag is accounted for.
- G02B optical elements dominate at 73.4% of records, while vehicle-mounted (B60R) and semiconductor-adjacent (H01L) filings stay under 3% each — a visible gap for cross-domain claims.
3,471
Published Records
32%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-24%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (274 records) with 2024 (209) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 3,471 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··7 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Field Overview
What this landscape covers
Mobile camera lens module design sits at the intersection of optics and mechanical packaging: plastic aspheric lens stacks, lens barrel assembly tolerances, and the control of stray light and ghost images inside a shrinking module height. The search set pulls records that combine module-level hardware terms with the performance and manufacturing concerns that actually separate a workable design from a defective one — modulation transfer function, thermal defocus, and assembly tolerance among them.
The dataset spans 3,471 published records from 2015 through the middle of 2026, filed mainly through the US, EPO and PCT routes, with meaningful volume also going through Germany and China. That spread reflects a market where module makers, phone OEMs and optics specialists all file defensively across the same handful of jurisdictions.
Filing activity and technology composition, 2015-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Mobile Camera Lens Module Design covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
The Numbers
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 3,471-record set: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim weight. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, the composition shares add up to more than 100% of the record total.
Filings rose to a 2020 peak, then eased
Volume climbed from 126 filings in 2017 to a peak of 296 in 2020, then declined to 209 by 2024 — a 24% drop across 2021-2024. 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in under normal publication lag and should not be read as a continued fall.
Optics carries the field; adjacent domains are thin
G02B (optical elements & systems) touches 73.4% of records and H04N (pictorial communication) 43.0%, confirming this is fundamentally an optics-and-imaging field. Vehicle-mounted optics (B60R, 2.0%), semiconductor integration (H01L, 2.8%) and medical imaging (A61B, 2.9%) each remain under 3% — thin enough that a well-drafted claim in any of them is not fighting dense prior art.
Shares are the percentage of the 3,471 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Mobile Camera Lens Module Design covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
Go deeper on Mobile Camera Lens Module Design with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about mobile camera lens module design and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
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The most-cited prior art and a representative filing
Representative Filing
US20170160509A1 — Camera Lens Module and Manufacturing Method Thereof
NINGBO SUNNY OPOTECH CO., LTD.
A camera lens module includes an image sensor and a lens assembly. The image sensor includes a photosensitive chip defining a photosensitive path, wherein the lens assembly is coupled to the image sensor along the photosensitive path. The lens assembly includes at least one optical lens module and an aperture member coupled at the optical lens module, wherein the optical lens module includes a lens barrel and at least an optical lens supported within the lens barrel. A relative position of the lens assembly with respect to the image sensor is adjustable for calibration and the relative position of the optical lens module is permanently fixed after calibration.Filed by Ningbo Sunny Opotech, this filing anchors the calibrate-then-fix mechanical pattern that recurs across the module-height and assembly-tolerance claims in this dataset.
Most-cited records in the corpus
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US8366005B2 | Hand-supportable digital image capture and processing system supporting a multi-tier modular software archite… | 888 |
| 2 | US8844822B2 | Image capture and processing system supporting a multi-tier modular software architecture | 715 |
| 3 | US20150014416A1 | Image capture and processing system supporting a multi-tier modular software architecture | 684 |
| 4 | US20160044250A1 | ZOOM dual-aperture camera with folded lens | 451 |
| 5 | US6628355B1 | Liquid crystal display panel including a light shielding film to control incident light | 387 |
| 6 | US20180024329A1 | Auto focus and optical image stabilization in a compact folded camera | 326 |
| 7 | US20160353008A1 | Auto-focus in low-profile folded optics multi-camera system | 309 |
| 8 | US20160291295A1 | ZOOM dual-aperture camera with folded lens | 305 |
| 9 | US6098887A | Optical focusing device and method | 295 |
| 10 | US20070211164A1 | Imager module optical focus and assembly method | 292 |
Citation counts reward age inside a searched corpus — treat these as markers of influence on later filings, not as a ranking of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Mobile Camera Lens Module Design covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the data means for a filing decision
Three patterns worth acting on before drafting a new claim in this space.
Concentration
32.4% of 3,471 records
held by the top five assignees
The top of the field is genuinely dense
Five assignees hold 1,126 of the 3,471 records in scope, and the top ten hold 1,565 (45.1%). That is not a fragmented field with a nominal leader — it is a small group of module makers and OEMs occupying a large share of the claim space, which raises freedom-to-operate risk for anyone entering with a similar mechanical architecture.
Ranking covers 100 companies, the full set returned by the data endpoint.
Momentum
-24% (2021→2024)
filing growth, complete years only
Volume has eased from its 2020 peak, not collapsed
Filings peaked at 296 in 2020 and stood at 209 by 2024, a 24% decline over that span. Several of the largest historical filers show sharp year-over-year drops in the latest recorded year, but publication lag means the most recent one to two years understate true filing activity — this reads as a plateau after a surge, not an exit from the field.
2025-2026 figures still filling in under normal 18-month publication lag.
Composition
73.4% G02B
vs. under 3% for B60R, H01L, A61B
Optics dominates; cross-domain claims are thin
G02B (optical elements) and H04N (pictorial communication) cover the large majority of records, while vehicle-mounted, semiconductor-integration and medical-imaging adjacencies sit under 3% each. A module design claim that explicitly bridges into one of those thin classes faces far less crowded prior art than another purely optical claim.
Class shares sum to more than 100% because records can carry multiple IPC codes.
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to mobile camera lens module design, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Mobile Camera Lens Module Design covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Who's Filing
The assignee landscape
The ranked list covers 100 companies drawn from the full 3,471-record set. A handful of module specialists and phone OEMs hold the largest single blocks, with a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants behind them.
Leader
399 records
single largest assignee
One filer holds a clear lead
The top-ranked assignee holds 399 records on its own, well ahead of fifth place at 141 and tenth place at 64. That gap between first and fifth suggests one company treats lens module mechanics as core IP rather than incidental patenting.
Counted in patent families / records, consistent with the ranking basis.
Mid-field
141 to 64 records
fifth to tenth place
A competitive second tier
Places five through ten span 141 down to 64 records — a group of module makers and consumer electronics firms filing steadily but without the leader's volume. This tier is where design-around pressure is often highest, since none of them can afford to cede ground on core barrel or calibration mechanics.
Top 10 combined: 1,565 records, 45.1% of all 3,471 in scope.
Momentum
-82% YoY
largest recent-year drop among top filers
Recent-year activity has cooled across the leaders
Several of the historically largest filers show year-over-year drops in the latest recorded year, including one down 82% and others down to zero. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, this is best read as incomplete recent data rather than a genuine retreat from the field.
Momentum figures cover the latest recorded year only, subject to publication lag.
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Corephotonics Ltd. | 5 | -82% |
| Apple Inc. | 1 | -50% |
| LG Innotek Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | 0 | -100% |
| Sony Group Corporation | 0 | — |
| Ningbo Sunny Opotech Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Ability Opto-Electronics Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Mobile Camera Lens Module Design covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's Next
Where to take this analysis
The figures here describe the field as a whole. Turning them into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means going deeper on the specific claims and assignees that matter to a given design.
Map freedom-to-operate against the leaders
The top five assignees hold 32.4% of all records — before committing to a barrel or calibration architecture, check whether it overlaps their granted claims.
Explore assignee claims in EurekaTrack the under-claimed branches
Vehicle-mounted, semiconductor-integrated and medical-imaging adjacencies each sit under 3% of records. Monitoring these for new entrants can flag a filing window early.
Set up a white space watch in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Mobile Camera Lens Module Design covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions about this landscape
The ranked list in this dataset covers 100 companies, and it is led by a single assignee holding 399 of the 3,471 records in scope. The top five combined hold 32.4% of all records, and the top ten hold 45.1%, which means filing activity is concentrated among a small group of module specialists and phone OEMs rather than spread evenly. Anyone assessing freedom to operate in this space should start by checking overlap with that leading group before looking at the long tail.
Filings rose from 126 in 2017 to a peak of 296 in 2020, then eased to 209 by 2024, a 24% decline over that three-year span using only years the dataset treats as complete. Publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so 2025 and 2026 figures in the raw trend are still filling in and should not be read as evidence of continued decline. The honest read is a plateau after a 2020 surge, not a field in retreat.
G02B, covering optical elements and systems, appears in 73.4% of the 3,471 records, and H04N, covering pictorial communication, appears in 43.0%. Photographic apparatus (G03B) shows up in 30.3% of records. Adjacent domains such as vehicle-mounted applications, semiconductor integration and medical imaging each sit under 3%, marking them as comparatively open ground for new claims that bridge into those areas.
US20170160509A1, filed by Ningbo Sunny Opotech, claims a camera lens module in which an optical lens module sits inside a lens barrel, is coupled to an image sensor along its photosensitive path, and can be repositioned for calibration before being permanently fixed. The core mechanical idea — adjustable positioning during calibration followed by permanent fixation — is the part most likely to constrain a competing design. Anyone building a similar barrel-and-sensor calibration mechanism should read the granted claim scope closely rather than relying on the abstract alone.
The clearest openings sit in the IPC classes that stay under 3% of records despite the field's overall filing density: vehicle-mounted optics, semiconductor-integrated lens-sensor assemblies, and medical or endoscopic lens barrel designs. These are not unclaimed, but they carry far less prior art than the core G02B optical-element space, where 73.4% of all records already sit. A first claim that explicitly ties module mechanics to one of these adjacent domains has more room to establish novelty than another purely optical claim.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Mobile Camera Lens Module Design covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company's registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.