I CLAIMS Patent Services has published a new report showing the enterprises, technologies and countries with the most patents. For 2017, over 320,000 patents were granted – an increase of 5.2% on the previous year and a new record.
I caught up with Larry Cady, senior analyst, IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, to learn more about trends in 3D printing patents.
The 3D printing industry is, “Vibrant and growing fast” Cady tells me. “We note that additive manufacturing is being heavily used at companies like Boeing and General Electric. Combined with some new advanced materials, it may have a big impact on manufacturing,” he adds.
The IFI Claims report shows that the 5 year growth rate for published patent applications in the Patent Classification B33Y Additive Manufacturing grew at a compound annual rate of 35% from 2013 to 2017.
The only technology with a higher 5 year growth rate was e-Cigarettes at 45%. Machine Learning took third place at 34%, Autonomous Vehicles had a 27% CAGR, Moulding Materials 27%, Hybrid Vehicles 26%, Aerial Drones also 26% and Food at 24% was the 8th fastest growing technology by patent.
General Electric received the most 3D printing patents in 2017
The report uses 70 sources of data and looked at the 320,003 Utility Grant patents issued by the USPTO. US enterprises were the recipients of 46% of the patents, 31% went to Asian companies and 15% to European business.
While Chinese companies received only 3.5% of the 2017 US Grants, this is a 28% increase on the prior year. “Among countries receiving US patents, the ranking is (1) US, (2) Japan, (3) Korea, (4) Germany, (5) China,” says Cady, “China has replaced Taiwan, which was number 5 in 2016.”
The enterprises with the greatest number of 3D Printing and additive manufacturing 2017 published patents applications for 2017 are listed in the report as follows:
General Electric 89 Xerox 78 Boeing 50 Desktop Metal 48 Hewlett-Packard Development 48 Ricoh Co 45 Stratasys 40
Some of the patents included in this data are additive manufacturing acoustic monitoring processes from GE, separable supports from Desktop Metal, Rocket Crafters 3D printed rocket fuel, and patents for Stratasys subsidiary Evolve Additive’s new 3D printing technology.
Interestingly, of the top 7 companies named as most active in 3D printing patents, Desktop Metal and Stratasys are the only “pure” 3D printing enterprises.
That said, should the 3D printing industry expect the 35% CAGR to translate into a wave of new products anytime soon? “Most patents take 2-3 years from application to grant and from there it depends— some may take years to be applied to a product,” explains Cady.
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