Did Canon make a huge mistake when they told Viltrox not to market auto-focus lenses for the RF mount?

The reason for Canon’s reaction are patent infringements, i.e. violation of Canon’s intellectual property. So, was this a dumb move, besides being an overzealous move? Me thinks third party RF mount lenses would benefit the EOS R system as a whole. But who am I to judge?

Christopher Frost posted a video-essay where he analyses and discusses Canon’s decision. The video lasts 7 minutes and is definitely worth your time.

Share your thoughts in the comment section.

After the story about Viltrox having told by Canon not to make RF mount lenses broke, some speculations about the reasons surfaced.

What might be the reasons? Canon Germany released a statement to Photographix Magazine (emphasis mine):

“SHENZHEN JUEYING TECHNOLOGY CO.LTD, manufactures auto focus lenses for Canon RF mount under the brand name “Viltrox”. Canon believes that these products infringe their patent and design rights and has therefore requested the company to stop all activities infringing on Canon’s intellectual property rights.”

So, all about copyright and patents, duh? That doesn’t seem to satisfy those who inquire more, and are keen to speculations. It is suggested, Canon does not have any “plans to give permission to third party manufacturers to utilize their RF mount patents as they pertain to electronics and autofocus anytime in the near future.” The reasons for that are listed as follows:

* Canon doesn’t feel the RF lineup is anywhere near maturity, and they want the lineup filled out with their own lenses first. Canon still has lots of work to do in both the non-L and L lineups.

* Canon believes the “more affordable” options are already covered by the hundred and whatever million EF lenses out there that work extremely well on the RF mount with Canon’s line of adapters.

* Canon isn’t done with tweaks and improvements to the RF mount.

This might well be the case. Never the less, it seems a bit of a far stretch to us and we wonder how much of this is just educated guess. What do you think?

Source: Canon Rumors