Pentax patents

Did you guys know that Pentax actually holds patents for:


Automatic aperture control device
Aperture system
Blade mechanism
and a whole lot more including a "Zoom lens system"...

from the zoom lens patent:


The patents are actually assigned to:
Asahi Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Which we know as Asahi Pentax...

Do you have dates for these, just out of interest?

If you are interested check out the US patents office at http://www.uspto.gov/index.html. It like an old library, you can lose yourself there.
In 2006
Pentax filed for 143 patents, Nikon 142, Canon 2366.
Interestingly Minolta Camera are listed as filing 169.

Steve

Trouble with patents is that anyone can file almost anything (even things that don't actually work, or that have been done before). The US patent archives is an evident demonstration of that!

A patent is only really worth something once it's been tested in court

Matt

True, there are many wierd and strange things that are filed, for a patent to be granted it has to have a commercial application and the applicant has to make efforts to develop that application or lose the patent. I accept that interpretation of above is not always consistent.

I have had involvement both the writing and analysis of patents and a well written patent can provide a huge competitive advantage for a company. SMC for example allowed Pentax to make smaller 'fast' lenses than its rivals. It could be argued that this was a necessary precursor to the launch of the 'M' series of cameras and all the success that went with them. Obviously other manufacturers have since developed there own multi coatings, maybe some have licensed the technology, but if the Pentax process is cheaper and better then the commercial advantage remains as long has the patent protection remains.
Intellectual property is something that companies will always value very highly and I am sure it was part of Hoya's due diligence.