Fujitsu tops 3D patent rankings
Japanese company Fujitsu has been assigned the most patents covering 3D printing technologies, according to a report by the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO).
The firm, which provides IT equipment and services, received 92 patents out of about 9,100 global inventions analysed by the IPO. The patents were published between 1980 and 2013.
There was a big increase in filings since 1980, when there were fewer than 50, and the peak year of 2012, which saw nearly 700 patents filed. The US issued the most (nearly 1,600) patents in the 23-year period, and the three biggest filers after Fujitsu were NEC, Stratasys and 3D Systems.
The IPO said “3D printing” is an umbrella term for a number of “related technologies that can be used to produce 3D objects” and that the dataset tried to combine these technologies to provide information about 3D printing from a “macroscopic” perspective.
It might be interesting to look at trademark filings in the 3D area to see if there is a relationship between that data and the current patent data, the IPO said.
It added: “Further work would encompass the analysis of particular parts of this dataset to provide analysis of patent data relating to particular technology areas such as biotechnology. Future work would also be envisaged in performing a more complete analysis of trademark data in this area as well as consideration of data available from journal and conference proceedings.
“The issue of intellectual property and 3D printing has not been fully considered in the current report but it remains an important issue in this field that is ripe for further consideration.”
The report is available here.
