2014年获得技术专利最多的8大公司

    4. 索尼

    专利数量：3224项

    代表性专利：“触发交互式电视参数表的扩展技术”

    国家：日本

    与佳能一样，索尼的专长领域也是图像通信（如电视）。根据索尼发言人的估算，此前获得的部分光学专利，已经帮助该公司占领了智能手机图像传感器市场43%的份额。（这位发言人声称：“总体而言，我们的技术领先竞争对手两年。”）我们列举的这项专利涉及“从内容源接收内容后，在显示器上显示接收到的内容”。其发明者在专利申请文件中详细描述了索尼对所谓交互式电视的兴趣。例如，想象一下，你在观看体育比赛的时候，大屏幕上会实时提供运动员的最新统计数据。该专利为这种技术奠定了基础。（目前尚不清楚索尼CEO平井一夫旨在削减电视业务的新商业计划将对这类专利造成怎样的影响。）

    4. Sony

    Patents earned: 3,224

    Representative patent: "Extensions to Trigger Parameters Table for Interactive Television"

    Country: Japan

    Like Canon, Sony's speciality is pictorial communication (e.g. television). Certain optical patents granted in years past have helped the company grab, a spokesperson estimates, 43% market share for image sensors in smartphones. ("In general our technology is two years ahead of our competitors," says the spokesperson.) Here we highlight a Sony patent that involves "receiving content from a content source, and displaying the received content on a display." Elaborating within the filing, the patent's authors detail Sony's interest in so-called interactive TV. Imagine, for example, that your big screen dishes out updated statistics for athletes while they compete in sporting events. This patent undergirds that technology. (No telling yet how CEO Kazuo Hirainew business plan that deemphasizes TV will affect it.)