Title: Trends in 3-D printing from a patent information analysis (APA)

Authors: Dou Henri; Philippe Clerc

Addresses: Atelis, ESCEM, 1 rue Leo Delibes, BP 0535, 37205 Tours Cedex 3, France ' Competitive Intelligence, France Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI de France), 46 avenue de la Grande Armée, CS 50071 – 75858 Paris Cedex 17, France

Abstract: 3-D printing, with all its wide range of applications is important not only on the point of view of its R&D, but also in the real economy since various companies already use this process to produce various products available on the market. This presentation use the automatic patent analysis (APA) to give to the reader a wide spectrum of the stakeholders in that field as well as the technological trend and the application domains. This paper will also demonstrate the interest to use the APA in other R&D domains. A special attention will be taken to the universities and institutes engaged in the field of 3-D printing, because this is one of the faster ways to move from patents to the upstream fundamental research.

Keywords: competitive intelligence; APA; automatic patent analysis; SMEs; small and medium-sized enterprises; bibliometrics; technology watch; patents; 3-D printing technology; 3-D printing software; Matheo Patent; technological trends.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTIP.2015.070854

International Journal of Technology Intelligence and Planning, 2015 Vol.10 No.3/4, pp.354 - 372

Published online: 30 Jul 2015 *

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