Polyimide Additives and Fillers Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
- Filing has cooled since 2022. Filings peaked at 28 in 2022 after opening at 23 in 2017, and the trend line runs flat to declining since — publication lag means the last year or two will fill in somewhat, but the plateau predates that lag.
- No assignee shows recent-year momentum. Every top assignee tracked, from Toray to DuPont to the individual inventor cluster around Roy Ray Odle, shows zero filings in the latest year — a sign the core claim space has already been staked out.
- The core is polymer chemistry, not electronics. C08L and C08K together cover the bulk of records, while H05K and H01L (circuits and semiconductors) sit well behind — most of the IP fight is still about the resin and filler system, not the end device.
Filing growth compares 2021 (5 records) with 2024 (7) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 213 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families where the title claims a polyimide or polyimide film and the claims or description reference a nanofiller, CTE-lowering filler, thermally conductive filler, or polyimide additive, restricted to the IPC subclasses covering polymer additives and use of fillers (C08K3, C08K7) and polyimide condensation polymers (C08L79/08). It is a narrow, formulation-level cut: the polymer backbone is fixed as polyimide, and the variable being patented is what gets added to it and why.
213 families published between 2015 and mid-2026 sit inside this scope. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent one to two years understate true filing activity — but the plateau visible from 2022 onward began well before that lag window, so it reflects a real slowdown rather than a reporting artefact.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 213-family set: how filing volume moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
A decade of filing, now flattening
Filings rose from 23 in 2017 to a peak of 28 in 2022, then declined toward the present. With 2022 as the midpoint of the observed range, the growth curve reads as flat-to-declining rather than still-building — a pattern more consistent with a maturing claim space than an emerging one.
Polymer chemistry dominates the classification mix
C08L (polymer compositions, 158 records) and C08K (polymer additives, 147) are the two largest subclasses by a wide margin, followed by C08G (condensation polymers, 105) and C08J (processing, 79). Layered products (B32B, 47) and electronics-adjacent classes (H05K, H01L, H01B) trail well behind, indicating that most contested claim territory is in the resin/filler formulation itself rather than in device integration.
Shares are the percentage of the 213 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Polyimide Additives and Fillers with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about polyimide additives and fillers and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe patents everyone in this space cites
Fixing belt with high thermal conductivity
A fixing belt includes a substrate layer including a first base resin and a first thermally conductive filler dispersed in the first base resin; and a release layer provided on the substrate layer, wherein the first base resin includes at least one selected from a polyimide, a polyamide, and a polyamideimide, and the first thermally conductive filler includes at least one selected from carbon black, graphite, boron nitride (BN), carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and carbon fibers, and the substrate layer has a thermal conductivity in a thickness direction of about 1.5W/m-K or more.Filed by Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. — a reminder that this claim space is not owned only by polymer producers; device makers file into it too.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20030181560A1 | Resin composition, molded object thereof, and use thereof | 63 |
| 2 | US20080044639A1 | Polyimide solvent cast films having a low coefficient of thermal expansion and method of manufacture thereof | 55 |
| 3 | WO2012011970A1 | Matte finish polyimide films and methods relating thereto | 53 |
| 4 | US20080044684A1 | Articles comprising a polyimide solvent cast film having a low coefficient of thermal expansion and method of… | 45 |
| 5 | US20080044682A1 | Articles comprising a polyimide solvent cast film having a low coefficient of thermal expansion and method of… | 43 |
| 6 | JP2005162878A | Polyimide film, method for producing the same, and base board using the same | 38 |
| 7 | WO2011111684A1 | Thermally conductive polyimide film and thermally conductive laminate produced using same | 33 |
| 8 | JP2020200454A | Thermosetting resin composition for thermal conductive material and cured product of the same, electronic com… | 31 |
| 9 | US20080044683A1 | Polyimide solvent cast films having a low coefficient of thermal expansion and method of manufacture thereof | 28 |
| 10 | EP1672009A1 | Thermally conductive polyimide film composites having high thermal conductivity useful in an electronic device | 28 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had more years to accumulate citations inside the searched corpus — read this as a map of influential prior art, not a ranking of current relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers say about the state of the field
Three readings of the same dataset, each pointing to a claim space that opened fast, filled in, and has since gone quiet at the top.
The peak has already passed
Filing climbed from 23 records in 2017 to a peak of 28 in 2022, then eased off. Even allowing for publication lag understating the last one to two years, the midpoint sits at the peak year rather than near the end of the range, which is the signature of a market that filled its core claims early rather than one still accelerating.
No one is actively pressing forward right now
Toray, SABIC IP, DuPont, and the individual-inventor cluster around Roy Ray Odle all show zero filings in the most recent tracked year. That is consistent with a plateaued field where the leading players have already secured their positions and are not currently adding to them — at least not in filings that have published yet.
This is a formulation fight, not a device fight
C08L (polymer compositions) and C08K (additives) between them touch the large majority of records, while semiconductor-device class H01L covers only 32. Claims are being drafted around the resin-filler system itself far more often than around how that system gets built into a chip package or circuit assembly.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to polyimide additives and fillers, with the prior art for and against each one.
The assignee landscape
Filing offices split across Europe, the US, the PCT route, China, Japan and Germany — a genuinely international field rather than one anchored in a single jurisdiction. Co-filing activity is concentrated in a small inventor cluster rather than spread across many collaborations.
Europe leads on raw filing count
The EPO receives more filings in this space than the USPTO, with the WIPO PCT route and China not far behind. That spread suggests applicants are pursuing multi-jurisdiction protection for formulation claims rather than treating any single office as the primary gate.
Collaboration is narrow and inventor-centred
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest ones — all built around inventor Roy Ray Odle paired separately with Mullen, Hagberg, and Chan — sit at the same 14-filing strength. That points to one durable R&D team rather than a broad web of industry partnerships.
The leaderboard has gone quiet
Every assignee with meaningful historical volume — Toray, SABIC IP, DuPont, and the Odle-led inventor group — shows no filings in the most recent tracked year. New entrants filing into this space now would be doing so against dormant incumbents rather than active competitors, at least on current published data.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Toray Industries, Inc. | 0 | — |
| SABIC Innovative Plastics IP B.V. | 0 | — |
| E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company | 0 | — |
| ODLE ROY RAY | 0 | — |
| MULLEN TARA J | 0 | — |
| HAGBERG ERIK | 0 | — |
| CHAN KWOK PONG | 0 | — |
| Toyo Ink Mfg. Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset behind this page answers volume and ranking questions. The questions below need claim-level reading, which is where Eureka comes in.
Check freedom-to-operate before drafting new filler claims
With C08K and C08L this densely filed, a new filler-composition claim needs checking against the specific loading ranges, particle sizes and surface treatments already claimed — not just against the general concept of adding a filler to polyimide.
Run a claim check in Eureka →Watch the dormant leaders for reactivation
Zero recent-year filings from every tracked assignee does not mean those portfolios are inactive elsewhere — it means published filings in this exact scope have stopped. Monitoring for continuation or divisional activity is the way to catch a restart early.
Set up assignee monitoring in Eureka →Common questions on polyimide additive and filler patents
The dataset's assignee ranking is led by a mix of large polymer producers — including Toray, SABIC Innovative Plastics IP, and DuPont — alongside a tightly linked group of individual inventors centred on Roy Ray Odle, who co-files repeatedly with colleagues such as Mullen, Hagberg, and Chan. None of these leading assignees show any filings in the most recent tracked year, which suggests the current leaderboard reflects historical accumulation rather than active present-day filing. Anyone benchmarking against these names should check whether their activity has simply moved to adjacent, unclassified filings rather than assuming they have exited the field.
No, not on the published evidence. Filings rose from 23 in 2017 to a peak of 28 in 2022, and have declined since, with 2026 so far showing no published records — though that last figure is partly an artefact of the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication. Even accounting for that lag, the midpoint of the observed filing range falls at the peak year rather than near the end, which is the pattern of a field that has passed its growth phase rather than one still climbing.
C08L (polymer compositions) and C08K (use of additives in polymers) are the two largest classes in this dataset, appearing in 158 and 147 records respectively out of 213 total. C08G (condensation polymers) and C08J (polymer processing) follow at meaningful but smaller volumes, while B32B (layered products) and the electronics-adjacent classes H05K, H01L, and H01B trail well behind. This distribution means the bulk of contested claim territory concerns the resin-filler formulation itself, not how that formulation is built into a finished device.
The classification data points to thinner filing density in areas where polyimide filler chemistry meets specific device applications — circuit substrates, cable insulation, and semiconductor packaging — since H05K, H01B, and H01L each carry far fewer records than the core C08K/C08L chemistry classes. That does not guarantee those areas are unclaimed, but it does mean fewer prior-art blocks have been identified there in this scope. A freedom-to-operate search focused specifically on those application-level claims, rather than the general filler chemistry, is the practical way to confirm the gap before filing.
US20210373473A1, assigned to Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P., claims a fixing belt with a substrate layer built from a polyimide, polyamide, or polyamideimide base resin loaded with a thermally conductive filler such as carbon black, graphite, boron nitride, carbon nanotubes, or carbon fibers, tuned to a thickness-direction thermal conductivity of about 1.5 W/m·K or more. It is a device-level claim rather than a pure composition claim, so it constrains fixing-belt and similar thermal-transfer component designs using these specific filler-resin combinations at that conductivity threshold, but it does not by itself block filler chemistry claimed outside that structural and performance context. Anyone designing a similar fixing belt or thermal component should check the exact filler loading and conductivity thresholds in the granted claims before assuming freedom to operate.
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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.