Biodegradable Packaging Film Patents: Who Leads, Where Gaps Are 2026
A data-led review of 214 biodegradable packaging film patent families: filing trends since 2015, the concentration among leading assignees, IPC technology composition, most-cited prior art, and where white space remains
Filing growth = 2021 (17 records) → 2024 (10); 2024 is the last year we treat as complete. Top-5 share = the 5 largest assignees ÷ all 214 records in scope (CR5), not the ranked leaders only.
What the patent record shows about biodegradable packaging film
Biodegradable packaging film sits at the intersection of polymer chemistry and packaging engineering, and the patent record reflects that split. Most filings claim either the material composition — the resin blends, additives and layered structures that make a film degrade under defined conditions — or the container and wrapping format the film is converted into. Very few records claim the processing step that turns resin into film, which is a narrower and less crowded area of the claim space.
The 214 records in scope span filings from 2015 through the 2026 cut-off, drawn from receiving offices led by India, the EPO, the United States, WIPO and China. That spread signals a technology being filed for regional market access as much as for core protection, and it means freedom-to-operate has to be checked jurisdiction by jurisdiction rather than assumed from a single office.
Let an AI agent run this analysis on your own technology
Pick a task. Every answer cites the patents behind it.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 214-record dataset: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filings rose to a 2020 peak, then eased
Annual filings climbed from 8 in 2017 to a peak of 22 in 2020. From 2021 (17) to 2024 (10) — the most recent year the trend can be read as complete — filings fell 41%, since 2025 and 2026 are still filling in under the usual 18-month publication lag. The shape reads as a filing wave that crested rather than one still building.
Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in. Growth rates on this page therefore end at 2024; running them to the last bar would understate the field.
Claims cluster in materials and packaging, thin out in processing
B65D (containers and packaging) covers 97.7% of the 214 records, effectively the entry ticket for anything in this search. Underneath that, C08L (polymer compositions, 41.6%) and C08J (polymer processing and solutions, 36.0%) carry most of the technical substance, with B32B (layered products, 27.6%) and C08K (additives, 16.4%) close behind. B29C (shaping of plastics, 4.7%) and F25C (ice making, 3.3%) are thin by comparison — B29C in particular is a narrow claim lane relative to how central film-forming is to the end product.
Shares are the percentage of the 214 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Biodegradable Packaging Film Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about biodegradable packaging film patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records and a representative filing
EP2733088A4 — Packaging with packaging material and biodegradable product for agriculture and forestry
The application, filed by Toray Industries, covers a package comprising a packaging material and a biodegradable agricultural or forestry product, where the packaging material is specified by a water vapor permeability threshold of 1 g/m2 per day or less and is described as covering the biodegradable product. The claim frames storage stability and handling as the technical problem the low-permeability barrier solves.Filed 2015-02-11; illustrates how a permeability threshold, rather than a resin composition, can anchor a claim.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20050249899A1 | Biodegradable packaging material | 72 |
| 2 | WO2006117801A2 | Packaging materials | 47 |
| 3 | US20210016939A1 | Biodegradable child resistant packaging container | 46 |
| 4 | WO2010001268A2 | Biodegradable packaging film | 36 |
| 5 | JP1994256480A | Biodegradable packaging film | 36 |
| 6 | CN102257068A | 可生物降解的包装膜 | 31 |
| 7 | US20090120816A1 | Sustainability in personal care product packaging | 29 |
| 8 | WO2007046174A1 | Biodegradable multilayered film with sealant layer | 27 |
| 9 | US20050221032A1 | Container of biodegradable heat-resistant hard resin molding | 21 |
| 10 | CN103554553A | 一种大米淀粉基可生物降解包装膜及其制备方法 | 20 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations inside this corpus; treat the ranking as a signal of influence on later filers, not of current commercial relevance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →What the concentration and citation data mean for a filing decision
Three figures from the dataset carry the most weight for anyone deciding where to file or who to watch.
A visible leader, not a lock-out
The leading assignee holds 19 records and the top five combined hold 26.2% of all 214 records in scope. That is enough concentration to name a clear front-runner, but with the tenth-ranked assignee at only 5 records, the remaining three-quarters of the field is a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants.
A wave that crested in 2020
Filings peaked at 22 in 2020 and fell 41% from 17 in 2021 to 10 in 2024, the last year the trend can be treated as complete. Read 2025 and 2026 figures as provisional given the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication.
Processing claims are the thin lane
Nearly every record touches B65D packaging claims, but only 4.7% touch B29C plastics-shaping claims. Composition (C08L, C08J) and layered-structure (B32B) classes carry most of the technical depth; the processing step that turns resin into finished film is comparatively under-claimed.
Older US filings anchor the citation graph
The most-cited record in the dataset, a biodegradable packaging material filing, carries 72 citations, with several other early US and international filings close behind. High citation counts here mark influence on later filers within this corpus, not necessarily current commercial weight.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to biodegradable packaging film patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next questions rather than a single conclusion.
Check freedom-to-operate by office
Filing is spread across India, the EPO, the US, WIPO and China rather than concentrated in one jurisdiction, so a clearance search built on a single office will miss active claims elsewhere.
Run a jurisdiction-level search in EurekaWatch the processing gap
B29C claims sit at 4.7% of the 214 records against a much larger composition and layering share, which is a narrower lane for a new film-forming process claim.
Explore the B29C claim space in EurekaTrack the long tail
With the tenth-ranked assignee at only 5 records, most of the field is single- or few-filing entrants; a name not yet visible in the ranking can still become relevant quickly.
Monitor new entrants in EurekaQuestions practitioners ask about this field
The dataset in scope contains 214 patent families published between 2015 and the 2026 cut-off, drawn from receiving offices led by India, the EPO, the United States, WIPO and China. This count uses patent families rather than raw document counts, which is the fairer unit because it neutralises repeat filings of the same invention across jurisdictions or continuations of the same application. Treat 214 as the current visible scope of this specific search, not as an exhaustive count of every related filing worldwide.
The ranking returned by the data endpoint covers 100 assignees, with the leading one holding 19 of the 214 records and the top five combined holding 26.2% of all records in scope. That leaves close to three-quarters of the field held by a long tail of assignees filing only a handful of records each, rather than by a small group of dominant players. Anyone doing competitive tracking should watch both the named leaders and this long tail, since new entrants can move up quickly from a low base.
Filings rose from 8 in 2017 to a peak of 22 in 2020, then fell 41% from 17 in 2021 to 10 in 2024, the most recent year that can be read as complete. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still filling in because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so they understate real filing activity and should not be read as a continuing decline. The honest read is a filing wave that crested in 2020 rather than a technology still accelerating.
Nearly all records, 97.7% of the 214, carry a B65D containers-and-packaging classification, which functions as the entry criterion for this search rather than a differentiator. Underneath that, polymer composition (C08L, 41.6%) and polymer processing and solutions (C08J, 36.0%) carry most of the technical substance, with layered products (B32B, 27.6%) and additives (C08K, 16.4%) also well represented. Plastics-shaping claims (B29C, 4.7%) are comparatively thin, marking a narrower and less contested part of the claim space.
EP2733088A4, filed by Toray Industries in February 2015, claims a package comprising a packaging material and a biodegradable agricultural or forestry product, where the packaging material is defined by a water vapor permeability of 1 g/m2 per day or less. The claim is anchored on a functional barrier threshold rather than a specific resin formulation, which makes it relevant to any film pitched at moisture-sensitive agricultural storage regardless of its exact composition. A new filing that avoids that permeability range, or that targets a non-agricultural end use, sits outside its literal scope, but a full clearance opinion should check the granted claim set and family status rather than the published abstract alone.
Research Biodegradable Packaging Film Patent Landscape in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole biodegradable packaging film patent landscape corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.