The Patent Portfolio Research Of 3D Printing

3D printing is rapid prototyping process,which is based on the principle of material accumulation.In recent years, with the maturity of the 3d printing market and as 3d printing began to be flourishing, expanding applications, while more and more companies come into this field.Chinese relevant enterprises should pay attention to the patent portfolio of 3d printing to deal with the coming market competition.The article chose 2665 scientific literatures about 3d printing which were retrieved in the web of science from 1990 to 2015 as a research object. The result of analysis shows that 3d printing has not entered its maturity,but in a stage of rapid development.3D printing is still focused on the research and development of rapid prototyping technology.The article shows that China, America, EU, Japan and Korea are the 5 most highly applied districts, while the top10 applicants come from America, Germany and China, by choosing 16081 patent applications about 3d printing from 1990 to 2015 as a research object. In the field of 3d printing, American market is the most important to foreign key assignees, while Chinese key assignees who rarely apply for foreign patents are prefer domestic market. At the same time,the value of patents from foreign key assignees in America is relatively high. Due to the difference of foreign enterprise scale,the patent strategy adopted by each assignee is different,and the object of selected cooperation will be different.Compared with the foreign key assignees, Chinese 3d printing started a little late,its core technologies are far behind their competitors.At the same time, Chinese 3d printing patents are basically distributed in domestic area, and they rarely carry out the patent portfolio in other countries and regions.In the long run, in order to enhance international competitiveness, Chinese enterprises must further strengthen the overseas patent portfolio and improve the quality of patents.Otherwise, they will fall into a passive position in foreign market.In order to promote the rapid development of 3d printing technology in China, we firstly should make development plans and devote greater efforts, and then with the increasing number of enterprises coming into the area, we need to timely promote the3 d printing industry alliance, and accelerate the industry merger and reorganization.Last but not the least, we should change the attitude that paying too much attention to the technology rather than the material, taking steps to accelerate the development of3 d printing material, to make the patent portfolio of 3d printing in the future. Chinese enterprises should strengthen cooperation with universities and research institutions,making full use of the advantage in technology and resources, to enhance the quality of patents. At the same time, they should pay attention to overseas patent portfolio,avoid the risk of patent infringement, and seek partners of the technology, to make breakthroughs in key technologies and promote technology innovation of 3d printing.