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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/photonics-optics-displays-and-lighting-patent-landscape-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Photonics, Optics, Displays & LightingPhotonics, Optics, Display and Lighting Patents: Who Leads and Where Filing Is Heading
- Concentration is modest at the top. the leading assignee holds 16,603 records but the top 5 combined account for only 13.7% of the 358,272 records in scope — this is a field with a long tail, not a duopoly.
- Filing has cooled from its 2019 peak. annual filings fell from 998 in 2021 to 526 in 2024, a 47% drop over that span, though 2025-2026 figures are still filling in under normal publication lag.
- Optical elements dominate the class mix. G02B (optical elements & systems) covers 2.1% of all records, more than double the next-largest subclass, showing where claim density is heaviest.
358.3K
Published Records
14%
Top-5 Share of All Records
-47%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (998 records) with 2024 (526) — 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 358,272 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
This dataset spans 358,272 published records filed between 2015 and 2026 that combine core photonics and optics terminology with adjacent technology tags spanning fiber optics, imaging optics, LEDs, lighting and optical sensing. It captures both foundational optical hardware claims and downstream applications in displays, imaging and diagnostics, so a single record can carry classes as different as G02B optical elements and A61B diagnostic instruments.
The picture that emerges is a mature, heavily filed field with a broad base of contributors rather than a small cluster of dominant players. Annual filing volume has receded from its 2019 peak, and publication lag means the last one to two years understate real activity. The technology composition skews toward core optical components and semiconductor-adjacent display hardware, with lighting device components and display control circuitry trailing well behind.
Filing volume and technology composition, 2015-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Photonics, Optics, Displays & Lighting Patent Landscape 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 trends and technology composition
Annual filing counts and IPC subclass shares, drawn directly from the 358,272 records in scope, show both the trajectory of the field and where technical claim density concentrates.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings rose to a peak of 1,198 in 2019, then declined; the 2021-to-2024 span alone shows a 47% drop, from 998 to 526 filings. The final one to two years in any such trend are always undercounted because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
G02B (optical elements & systems) leads at 2.1% of all 358,272 records, ahead of H01L semiconductor devices at 0.9% and H04N pictorial communication at 0.6%. Because records can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares are each measured against the same full-record denominator and are not mutually exclusive.
Shares are the percentage of the 358,272 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 Photonics, Optics, Displays & Lighting Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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Most-cited records in the corpus
Representative Filing
Led-based planar light illumination and imaging (PLIIM) camera system
METROLOGIC INSTRUMENTS, INC.
Describes a camera system using arrays of planar laser illumination modules — each combining a visible laser diode, focusing lens and cylindrical optical element — to produce a composite planar illumination beam spanning the imaging field of view, with real-time object coordinate acquisition driving automatic zoom and focus control.Filed by Metrologic Instruments, Inc., published 2003-04-17 as US20030071128A1.
Highest-citation records
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20060228974A1 | Methods of making displays | 4,217 |
| 2 | US20130278631A1 | 3D positioning of augmented reality information | 2,103 |
| 3 | US5825043A | Focusing and tilting adjustment system for lithography aligner, manufacturing apparatus or inspection apparat… | 2,023 |
| 4 | US20130127980A1 | Video display modification based on sensor input for a see-through near-to-eye display | 1,897 |
| 5 | US5769791A | Tissue interrogating device and methods | 1,728 |
| 6 | US20130201316A1 | System and method for server based control | 1,727 |
| 7 | US5715039A | Projection exposure apparatus and method which uses multiple diffraction gratings in order to produce a solid… | 1,419 |
| 8 | US20040000627A1 | Method for focus detection and an imaging system with a focus-detection system | 1,171 |
| 9 | US5756981A | Optical scanner for reading and decoding one- and-two-dimensional symbologies at variable depths of field inc… | 1,065 |
| 10 | US7254429B2 | Method and apparatus for monitoring glucose levels in a biological tissue | 1,058 |
Citation counts reflect influence within this searched corpus and skew toward older, foundational filings rather than current commercial importance.
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 Photonics, Optics, Displays & Lighting Patent Landscape 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 signals
Three patterns stand out once filing volume, class composition and citation weight are read together.
Concentration
13.7%
of 358,272 records held by top 5
No single filer controls the field
The leading assignee holds 16,603 records, but the top 5 combined represent only 13.7% of all records in scope and the top 10 just 20.3%. That leaves the majority of filing activity spread across a long tail of contributors, which matters for freedom-to-operate analysis: clearance searches cannot stop at the largest names.
Based on the full 100-company assignee ranking.
Momentum
-47%
filing change, 2021 to 2024
Volume has receded from its 2019 peak
Annual filings dropped from 998 in 2021 to 526 in 2024. Combined with a 2019 peak of 1,198, this points to a field past its filing high point rather than one still accelerating, though the most recent two years are still being backfilled by publication lag.
2024 is the most recent year treated as complete.
Composition
2.1%
of records classed G02B
Optical elements carry the densest claim coverage
G02B optical elements & systems covers 2.1% of all 358,272 records, more than double H01L semiconductor devices at 0.9%. Lighting components (F21V) and display control circuitry (G09G) sit well below both, at 0.4% and 0.3% respectively.
Shares are measured against the same full-record denominator and overlap because records carry multiple classes.
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Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to photonics, optics, displays & lighting patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Photonics, Optics, Displays & Lighting Patent Landscape 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
Players
Who is filing, and where activity is cooling
The assignee ranking spans 100 companies with a clear leader but no dominant bloc, and recent-year momentum figures show even the largest filers pulling back.
Leader
16,603
records
The largest single filer, still a minority share
The top-ranked assignee holds 16,603 records — well ahead of fifth place at 6,460 — but still represents a fraction of the 358,272-record field, underscoring how distributed this landscape remains even at the top.
Rank 1 of 100 in the assignee ranking.
Mid-tier
3,607
records, 10th place
A steep drop-off after the top five
Filing volume falls from 6,460 at fifth place to 3,607 at tenth, and the top 10 combined still only reach 20.3% of all records in scope — evidence of a long tail rather than a tight oligopoly.
Top 10 combined: 72,846 records.
Momentum
-71% to -100%
YoY, latest year
Even active filers are pulling back sharply
Recent-year momentum among named assignees shows steep year-on-year declines — one large filer down 71%, others down 75-100% to zero filings in the latest year. This mirrors the broader 2021-2024 volume drop rather than signalling any single company's retreat.
Figures reflect latest available year, subject to publication lag.
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Carl Zeiss SMT GmbH | 4 | -71% |
| BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd. | 2 | -75% |
| Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | 1 | -80% |
| 3M Innovative Properties Company | 0 | -100% |
| Olympus Corporation | 0 | — |
| Facebook Technologies, LLC (Meta) | 0 | -100% |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Sony Group Corporation | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Photonics, Optics, Displays & Lighting Patent Landscape 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 dataset points to specific next steps for teams deciding where to file, litigate or license.
Map claim scope against the long tail
With the top 10 assignees holding only 20.3% of records, a freedom-to-operate review that stops at the largest names will miss most of the relevant claim space held by smaller filers.
Explore assignee coverage in EurekaWeight citation signals by filing date
The most-cited records in this corpus date back to the 1990s and 2000s; treat citation count as a measure of historical influence, not of which current filings matter most.
Run a citation-adjusted search in EurekaWatch the under-claimed branches
Nonlinear optics, fiber-optic sensing integration and compact lighting-component packaging show thinner filing density than core optical elements — a signal worth checking against your own claim drafts.
Screen white space in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Photonics, Optics, Displays & Lighting Patent Landscape 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 on this landscape
The assignee ranking for this field lists 100 companies, led by a single filer with 16,603 records, well ahead of the fifth-ranked company at 6,460. However, the top 5 assignees combined hold only 13.7% of the full 358,272-record dataset, and the top 10 reach just 20.3%. That means most filing activity sits outside the largest names, in a long tail of mid-size and single-filing entrants, so a competitive scan needs to look well beyond the visible leaders.
Filing peaked in 2019 at 1,198 records and has since declined, with the 2021-to-2024 span alone showing a 47% drop from 998 to 526 filings. 2024 is the most recent year that can be treated as complete, because publication typically lags actual filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 and 2026 figures will keep rising as more records publish. Based on the complete years available, the trend is a cooling one rather than an accelerating one.
G02B, covering optical elements and systems, is the densest subclass at 2.1% of all 358,272 records, more than double the next-largest category, H01L semiconductor devices at 0.9%. Pictorial communication (H04N) and material analysis and testing (G01N) each sit around 0.6%, with lighting device components (F21V) and display control circuits (G09G) trailing at 0.4% and 0.3%. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these shares overlap and should not be summed.
Relative to the dense core of optical elements and semiconductor-adjacent display hardware, branches such as nonlinear optics for sensing, fiber-optic sensing integration, and compact lighting-component packaging show comparatively thin filing density in this dataset. These are not guaranteed openings — they may reflect smaller addressable markets rather than pure neglect — but they are worth a dedicated novelty search before assuming the core optical-elements space is the only place left to file. Display control circuit efficiency is another area sitting well below the top subclasses by record share.
The most-cited records in this corpus, including a 1990s lithography-alignment patent and a mid-2000s display-manufacturing filing, accumulated their citation counts over long periods and reflect historical influence rather than present-day relevance. Citation counts inside any searched corpus structurally favour older records, since younger filings have had less time to accumulate citations regardless of their technical merit. Treat high citation counts as a signal of a foundational or widely-referenced filing, not as evidence that the underlying technology is still the most active area of filing today.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Photonics, Optics, Displays & Lighting Patent Landscape 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.