Photopolymer Resin Formulation Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
- A three-way field. the assignee ranking returns just three companies against 13 published records — a small, tightly held corpus rather than a crowded one.
- Carbon nanotube dispersions dominate the citation table. the three most-cited records all describe the same discrete carbon nanotube dispersion technology across WIPO, Canadian and US filings.
- Filing peaked in 2022 at 10 records then evidence thins toward the present, which — given the roughly 18-month publication lag — likely understates recent activity rather than reflecting a real slowdown.
What this landscape covers
Photopolymer resin formulation sits at the intersection of vat photopolymerization hardware and materials chemistry: photoinitiator selection, cure depth control, green strength before post-cure, shrinkage management, toughening additives and shelf stability all show up as claim elements in the same small set of records. This dataset draws on 13 published records spanning 2015 to the 2026 cut-off, searched against terms that pair formulation concepts with vat photopolymerization and photoinitiator-specific language.
The corpus is small enough that a handful of families set the tone for the whole field, and the IPC composition shows formulation claims consistently paired with additive manufacturing process classes rather than filed as standalone chemistry.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 13 records: how filings moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims sit in.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings were absent in 2017, built toward a peak of 10 records in 2022, and taper toward the 2026 cut-off. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent years in this trend are understated rather than a genuine drop-off in activity.
IPC subclass distribution
B29C (shaping of plastics) and B33Y (additive manufacturing) each cover the large majority of the 13 records, at 76.9% and 69.2% respectively, with C01B and C08K each present in 61.5%. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these shares add up to well over 100% of the record total — they describe how claims overlap process and materials classes, not a partition of the corpus.
Shares are the percentage of the 13 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Photopolymer Resin Formulation with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about photopolymer resin formulation and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in this corpus
Dispersions and Manufacturing Technologies for Additive Manufacturing Comprising Discrete Carbon Nanotubes
The present invention is directed to additive manufacturing compositions and methods for producing additive manufacturing composite blends with oxidized discrete carbon nanotubes with dispersion agents bonded to at least one sidewall of the oxidized discrete carbon nanotubes. Such compositions are especially useful when radiation cured, sintered or melt fused.Filed by Mechnano, LLC and published 2023-06-29; related family members extend to WIPO and Canadian filings.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2022204423A1 | Dispersions and manufacturing technologies for additive manufacturing comprising discrete carbon nanotubes | 5 |
| 2 | CA3213294A1 | Dispersions and manufacturing technologies for additive manufacturing comprising discrete carbon nanotubes | 3 |
| 3 | US20230202108A1 | Dispersions and Manufacturing Technologies for Additive Manufacturing Comprising Discrete Carbon Nanotubes | 1 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus like this one skew toward older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations — read them as a signal of influence within this dataset, not as a ranking of current technical importance.
Publication numbers are shown where the record carries one (3 of 3 rows); clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three observations that follow directly from the record set, without extrapolating beyond what the data shows.
A narrow field, not a crowded one
The assignee ranking returns only three companies against 13 published records. That is too small a base to describe as fragmented or consolidated in percentage terms, but it does mean a new entrant is not fighting through dozens of incumbents to find open claim territory.
One dispersion technology anchors the citation table
The three most-cited records in this corpus — spanning WIPO, Canadian and US filings — all describe the same discrete carbon nanotube dispersion approach for additive manufacturing resins. That repetition across jurisdictions suggests the underlying technology was filed as a coordinated family rather than independently reinvented.
Activity peaked in 2022, then thins toward 2026
Filings built from zero in 2017 to a peak of 10 in 2022. The falloff toward the present is expected given an 18-month publication lag rather than evidence that interest has genuinely cooled.
Formulation claims are filed as process claims
B29C (shaping of plastics) and B33Y (additive manufacturing) each appear in the large majority of the 13 records, meaning photopolymer resin chemistry in this dataset is almost never claimed on its own — it rides alongside a specific printing or moulding process.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to photopolymer resin formulation, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is active, and where the gaps sit
With only three assignees in the ranking, this is a field defined by a small number of research groups and one materials company rather than a broad competitive set.
One assignee accounts for the bulk of the corpus
The leading assignee in the ranking holds 11 of the records in scope, with the remaining ranked assignees holding the rest. That leaves the field close to single-assignee dominance within this dataset, even though the underlying corpus of 13 records is small.
A single academic co-filing relationship
The only co-assignee pairing in this dataset links two university research bodies, appearing together twice. That is the sole sign of collaborative filing in an otherwise single-assignee-per-record corpus.
Latest-year activity reads flat across the board
All three ranked assignees show zero filings in the most recent year captured. Given the roughly 18-month gap between filing and publication, this is more likely a reporting artefact of the data cut-off than a genuine stop in R&D.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Mechnano, LLC | 0 | — |
| Virginia Tech (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) | 0 | — |
| Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a narrow, citation-anchored field with process claims dominating over standalone chemistry claims.
Check freedom-to-operate on dispersion chemistry
The carbon nanotube dispersion family anchors the citation table and spans three jurisdictions. Any formulation using conductive or reinforcing nanotube additives in a vat-polymerized resin should be checked against this family specifically.
Explore the citation network in EurekaProbe the under-claimed branches directly
Shelf stability, toughening additives and post-cure shrinkage compensation each appear in the search terms but are thin in the IPC composition. A targeted claim search on those terms alone would confirm how open they really are.
Run a targeted search in EurekaCommon questions about photopolymer resin formulation patents
The assignee ranking for this dataset returns three companies across 13 published records. This is the complete ranking the data endpoint returns, not a top-50 or top-100 cut, so it reflects a genuinely narrow field rather than a large industry where only the leaders were counted. One assignee holds the majority of the ranked records, with the remaining two holding smaller shares including a co-filed pair.
The most-cited record describes dispersions of discrete carbon nanotubes for additive manufacturing, filed as a family spanning WIPO, Canadian and US applications. High citation counts inside a searched corpus tend to favour older filings that have simply had more time to accumulate citations, so this should be read as a signal of influence within the dataset rather than proof that the technology is still the most commercially relevant one today.
Filings peaked at 10 records in 2022 within this dataset and appear to decline afterward, but patent applications typically take around 18 months to publish after filing. That means the years closest to the 2026 data cut-off are systematically undercounted, and the apparent drop-off is more likely an artefact of publication timing than a real reduction in R&D activity.
Based on the IPC composition, branches like post-cure shrinkage compensation, shelf-stable dual-cure initiator packages and toughening additives for brittle parts appear in the underlying search terms but are thinly represented against the dominant B29C and B33Y process classes. A first claim in these areas would likely pair a specific additive chemistry with a measurable cure or storage-stability outcome, since that combination is what shows up sparsely in the current record set.
Not necessarily — a corpus of 13 records with only three ranked assignees can mean the claim space is genuinely open rather than crowded, especially in the specific sub-areas that sit outside the dominant carbon nanotube dispersion family. It does mean any freedom-to-operate check should focus closely on the handful of existing families, since there are fewer of them to clear but each one may carry broader claims given the limited competition.
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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.