Sony has a total of 95533 patents globally, out of which 35166 have been granted. Of these 95533 patents, more than 78% patents are active. United States of America is where Sony has filed the maximum number of patents, followed by Japan and China and it also seems reasonable as the biggest market for Sony is USA & Japan. Parallelly, Japan seems to be the main focused R&D center and is also the origin country of Sony.
Sony was founded in 1946 by Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka. Sony doing business as a Conglomerate Company. The Company offers wide range of products of Consumer Electronics, Semiconductors, Telecommunications Equipment, Robots and Computer hardware, etc. As of December 2021, Sony has a market cap of $156.45 Billion.
Also, did you know that Sony is among the leading patent filers in Satellite Communication Industry! Click here to read more.
Do read about some of the most popular patents of Sony which have been covered by us in this article and also you can find Sony’s patents information, the worldwide patent filing activity and its patent filing trend over the years, and many other stats over Sony’s patent portfolio.
How many patents does Sony have?
Sony has a total of 95533 patents globally. These patents belong to 26420 unique patent families. Out of 95533 patents, 75007 patents are active.
How many Sony patents are Alive/Dead?
Worldwide Patents
Patent Families
How Many Patents did Sony File Every Year?
Are you wondering why there is a drop in patent filing for the last two years? It is because a patent application can take up to 18 months to get published. Certainly, it doesn’t suggest a decrease in the patent filing.
| Year of Patents Filing or Grant | Sony Applications Filed | Sony Patents Granted |
| 2011 | 3955 | 38 |
| 2012 | 10927 | 158 |
| 2013 | 9549 | 367 |
| 2014 | 9787 | 1130 |
| 2015 | 8732 | 2145 |
| 2016 | 9295 | 3794 |
| 2017 | 10400 | 4400 |
| 2018 | 10987 | 4824 |
| 2019 | 11932 | 5897 |
| 2020 | 7548 | 6530 |
| 2021 | 2421 | 5883 |
How Many Patents did Sony File in Different Countries?
Countries in which Sony Filed Patents
| Country | Patents |
| United States Of America | 23031 |
| Japan | 19003 |
| China | 13666 |
| Europe | 8445 |
| Korea (South) | 3385 |
| Taiwan | 2324 |
| India | 1301 |
| Germany | 886 |
| Brazil | 832 |
| United Kingdom | 760 |
| Russian Federation | 629 |
| Canada | 593 |
| Australia | 548 |
| Mexico | 382 |
| Viet Nam | 265 |
| Indonesia | 249 |
| Singapore | 232 |
| Malaysia | 211 |
| Hong Kong (S.A.R.) | 196 |
| Thailand | 169 |
| South Africa | 131 |
| Philippines | 131 |
| Spain | 89 |
| Turkey | 80 |
| Chile | 48 |
| Uruguay | 44 |
| Argentina | 31 |
| Ecuador | 21 |
| Costa Rica | 18 |
| Poland | 14 |
| Belgium | 12 |
| Hungary | 12 |
| France | 8 |
| Denmark | 8 |
| Honduras | 7 |
| African Regional Industrial Property Organization | 7 |
| Portugal | 6 |
| Guatemala | 5 |
| Peru | 4 |
| Cuba | 4 |
| Israel | 4 |
| Colombia | 3 |
| Nicaragua | 2 |
Where are Research Centers of Sony Patents Located?
10 Best Sony Patents
JP2012160679A is the most popular patent in the Sony portfolio. It has received 285 citations so far from companies like Semiconductor Energy Laboratory, Japan Display and Toshiba.
Below is the list of 10 most cited patents of Sony:
| Publication Number | Citation Count |
| JP2012160679A | 285 |
| US20130137455A1 | 252 |
| US20130050069A1 | 241 |
| US9288597B2 | 223 |
| JP2013046412A | 217 |
| US9099787B2 | 210 |
| US20130279724A1 | 205 |
| US20120257035A1 | 185 |
| US20130128059A1 | 181 |
| WO2016156236A1 | 155 |
Which Companies are using Sony Patents to Advance their Research?
If patents or patents from a particular technology area of a company receive a lot of citations, it implies that the technology is being followed and incrementally innovated by the citing companies. It also indicates that citing companies are working on similar and closely related technologies.
The top citing companies in the Sony patent portfolio are Samsung, Canon and LG.
List of the top forward citing Companies –
| Company | Number of Patents |
| Samsung | 1271 |
| Canon | 483 |
| LG | 431 |
| Qualcomm | 386 |
| Microsoft | 372 |
| IBM | 312 |
| Intel | 290 |
| Apple | 289 |
| 237 | |
| Huawei | 228 |
Count of 102 and 103 Type Rejections based on Sony Patents
Top Sony Patents used in Rejecting Most Patent Applications
| Patent Number | Count of Rejected Applications |
| US8793620B2 | 52 |
| US8987794B2 | 41 |
| US9900224B2 | 38 |
| US9484447B2 | 37 |
| US10204658B2 | 37 |
| US10120438B2 | 35 |
| US20130050069A1 | 31 |
| US20120223956A1 | 30 |
| US9818225B2 | 29 |
| US9276921B2 | 28 |
| US9825881B2 | 26 |
| US9908048B2 | 25 |
| US9551873B2 | 25 |
| US9012284B2 | 25 |
| US9649558B2 | 24 |
What Percentage of Sony US Patent Applications were Granted?
Sony (Excluding its subsidiaries) has filed 63272 patent applications at USPTO so far (Excluding Design and PCT applications). Out of these 48825 have been granted leading to a grant rate of 82.48%.
Below are the key stats of Sony patent prosecution at the USPTO.
Which Law Firms Filed Most US Patents for Sony?
| Law Firm | Total Applications | Success Rate |
| Oblon Mcclelland Maier & Neustadt | 7091 | 82.07% |
| Chip Law Group | 5201 | 77.37% |
| Dentons Us Llp | 4815 | 85.27% |
| Haug Partners Llp | 3907 | 89.32% |
| K&L Gates Llp | 3427 | 82.11% |
| Sony | 2644 | 82.13% |
| Wolf Greenfield & Sacks | 2480 | 77.21% |
| Fishman Stewart | 2366 | 83.81% |
| Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner | 1825 | 75.27% |
| Paratus Law Group | 1698 | 74.94% |
The Technology Driven methodology fits Sony’s innovation strategy perfectly. Sony develops cutting-edge technologies that meet the needs of its customers. To maintain their market position, Sony is always improving the quality and design of their products. Aside from that, Sony mostly develops innovations in order to locate or establish markets through the digital revolution and improvement.
Sony is today’s camera technology leader, a fact that is sometimes missed because much of that technology is found in smartphones marketed by others.
Sony’s innovation strategy model focuses on strengthening their key areas of digital imaging, gaming, and mobile, which are the three primary segments of the company’s electronics business.
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What are Sony‘s key innovation segments?
What Technologies are Covered by Sony?
The chart below distributes patents filed by Sony in different countries on the basis of the technology protected in patents. It also represents the markets where Sony thinks it’s important to protect particular technology inventions
R&D Focus: How Sony search focus changed over the years?
Interested in knowing about the areas of innovation that are being protected by Sony?
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