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New patents from Ricoh

The patents don't always make it to production and now with the Pentax - Ricoh merge it's hard to know where they are aiming. A '24 - 84mm' equivalent does sound a bit like a GX300 but the sensor is quite small which seems to be fighting the trend. The 24mm APS-C is probably aimed at a DSLR as you suggest unless it will be for the GXR2 (I wish).

Richard
 
Thanks for this papa. Its good to know that their are some new things coming along. However, as Richard said, they may never make it to production and may have simply been filed to protect their investment in design time without any definite plan at the moment...
 
Here is an other patent, for 0.7 Wide converter.

http://translate.google.com/translate?s ... t=&act=url

Seems like it possibly could be for the Ricoh GR. There was that GV-1 adapter lens for the GRDI and II which equaled 21mm but none for the GRDIII or IV and the GV-1 was not compatible with these.

Wonder however this converter could be compatible with the 24mm f2 lens which RIcoh also filed patent for. I might guess No as there is a patent for a 16mm lens and the the 24/2 would equal about 16mm with a 0.7 Wc.

But as we know there is not coming something out of every patent. Far from it it seems.
 
All companies in the technology field seem to play the patent game. If the design team has nothing much to do they simply try new concepts and if they seem useful they are patented in the hope that they might become truly useful to the company at a later date or they might generate a handy royalty stream if another company adopts the principle. Better still a rival might use the concept in your patent accidentally or without permission and you can sue them for millions. Much like Kodak sued and won a few million from Pentax some time ago - presumably much to Ricoh's chagrin.

The idea of patents was to promote innovation by protecting the inventor's right. But in practice the maze of patented ideas must make new innovation harder as a new device not only has to be invented but also have to wend its way through a proverbial maze of existing patents without infringing any. Even when royalties might be paid for use of a patent negotiating a reasonable royalty rate might be the hardest part.

Therefore patents might be a necessary solution but if used to their ultimate level actually stifle innovation. Especially if patents are made but never used in a marketed product.

TomC
 
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