Patent status of biodegradable polymers and identification of new application areas by IPC network analysis

Abstract

Biodegradable polymers (BDPs), due to their degradability, have great merits for applications in the environmental fields compared to conventional polymers. Furthermore, they are recently receiving renewed attention with the rise of globally issued environmental problems caused by plastic wastes. However, BDPs are still produced and utilized with limited amounts and applications in comparison to conventional plastics. To help expand the application area of BDPs, we mainly focus on the emerging and exotic technologies of BDPs by analyzing International Patent Classification (IPC) co-classification networks constructed from 2,862 patents on BDPs filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office from 2006 to 2022. As a result, by detecting both recently appearing and isolated IPCs, new and relatively unknown application areas of BDPs such as animal trap, polishing composition, rope lubricant, underground structure, ammunition, digital data carrier are identified. Our IPC analysis methodology studied in the field of BDPs would be also useful for researchers and entrepreneurs searching new and emerging applications in various technology areas.