It is difficult to see where one patent application fits in a sector and it is even more difficult to visualize where multiple patent applications fit in a sector. The Patent Forecast® eases this burden by providing a unique visualization of all patent documents in a sector.
To illustrate the ease and benefit of the Patent Forecast®, a Patent Radian® is provided below.
The Patent Radian® is searchable by assignee name. The above Patent Radian® illustrates the recent activity of Eastman Chemical Company in the year of 2020. The unfilled circles indicate patent applications filed by Eastman Chemical Company. In 2020 alone, Eastman filed 18 patent applications and had 1 patent issued. This is pretty significant activity for a company that only has 40 documents in the sector. This means Eastman must have been gearing up for something pretty big, right?
On January 29, 2021, Eastman announced a “World-Scale Plastic-to-Plastic Molecular Recycling Facility” to be built in Kingsport, Tenn. This plant will be focused on converting polyester waste using methanolysis to produce speciality plastics. This method is discussed in US Patent Publication No. 20200247910.
On September 29, 2020 Eastman introduced its Naia™ cellulose fiber portfolio, which is formed from 60% wood pulp and 40% recycled waste plastic. Many of the patent publications illustrated in the animated GIF are related to cellulose compositions. US Patent Publication No. 20200063347 covers cellulose, yarn and wood in a waste recycled composition.
These are just two examples of Eastman’s recent activity but with 18 applications published in 2020, it’ll come as no surprise to see more big announcements from Eastman. Don’t miss other explosive patent activity by subscribing to the Biodegradable Packaging Patent Forecast®.