Polyimide Polymer Synthesis Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
- Filing has cooled since 2017. Publications peaked at 435 in 2017 and have declined toward the most recent partial year, with 2022 sitting at 407 — a flat-to-declining trend, not a growth story.
- Condensation chemistry dominates the IPC mix. C08G records outnumber every other subclass by a wide margin (8,237 of 9,466), with film/laminate and electronics-facing classes (B32B, H05K, H01L) trailing well behind — most of the claim space sits in the base polymerization, not the downstream applications.
- Momentum has stalled even among the largest filers. Assignees that built the deepest portfolios — 钟渊化学工业, 三井化学, UBE, DuPont — show zero or negative year-over-year filing in the latest tracked year.
Filing growth compares 2021 (329 records) with 2024 (302) — 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 9,466 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the polyimide synthesis patent record shows
Polyimide chemistry has one of the longest continuous patent records in specialty polymers, and the current dataset — 9,466 published records spanning 2015 through mid-2026 — reads as a mature field rather than an emerging one. Filing peaked in 2017 at 435 publications and has not recovered since; the 2022 midpoint of 407 confirms this isn’t a temporary dip. Most of the claim density sits in condensation polymerization (C08G) and general polymer composition (C08L) work, meaning the core dianhydride-diamine and imidization chemistry is heavily claimed before you even reach film-forming or device-integration steps.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the tail end of the trend line — including the most recent full year — understates real filing activity. Read the decline from 2017 as directionally real but treat the very last one or two years as provisional.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same corpus: publication volume over time, and where those publications sit across the IPC scheme.
A field past its filing peak
Publications ran from 435 in 2017 down to 44 in the most recent (partial) year, with the 2022 midpoint at 407 — a pattern of decline rather than sustained growth. Expect the final one to two years to revise upward as filings publish.
Condensation chemistry, not applications, carries the volume
C08G (condensation polymers) accounts for 8,237 of the 9,466 records, roughly double the next largest subclass, C08L (polymer compositions) at 4,364. Application-facing classes — B32B laminates, H05K circuit assemblies, H01L semiconductors, C09D coatings — each sit under 1,000, indicating the core synthesis route is where the claim thicket is deepest.
Shares are the percentage of the 9,466 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Polyimide Polymer Synthesis with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about polyimide polymer synthesis and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited prior art and a representative recent filing
US20210301132A1 — Transparent and tint-free polyimide film
A transparent and tint-free polyimide film, a preparation method thereof and an optical PI film are provided in the disclosure. The transparent and tint-free polyimide film not only has excellent light transmittance (≥85% @500 nm), but also has high modulus (tensile modulus≥3.8 GPa) and low coefficient of thermal expansion (≤30 ppm/Celsius, 50-200 Celsius) and other characteristics, so as to the transparent and tint-free polyimide film can meet the needs of flexible optoelectronic display devices.Filed by Zhongtian Electronic Materials Co., Ltd., published 2021-09-30.
View full record| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US7071287B2 | Aerogel metallic compositions | 1,530 |
| 2 | US5406124A | Insulating adhesive tape, and lead frame and semiconductor device employing the tape | 324 |
| 3 | US5344916A | Negative birefringent polyimide films | 322 |
| 4 | US6232428B1 | Essentially colorless, transparent polyimide coatings and films | 207 |
| 5 | JP1984108031A | Photosensitive polyimide | 206 |
| 6 | US20040132845A1 | Polyimide aerogels, carbon aerogels, and metal carbide aerogels and methods of making same | 198 |
| 7 | US4927736A | Hydroxy polyimides and high temperature positive photoresists therefrom | 178 |
| 8 | US6919422B2 | Polyimide resin with reduced mold deposit | 171 |
| 9 | US5869595A | Polyimide curing process and improved thermal ink jet printhead prepared thereby | 167 |
| 10 | US7041773B2 | Polyimide sulfones, method and articles made therefrom | 163 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply by virtue of being searchable longer; treat this as an influence signal, not a ranking of current importance.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Four cuts through the same corpus that matter for anyone deciding where to file next or who to watch.
The growth phase is behind this field
Publications dropped from a 2017 peak of 435 to 44 in the most recent partial year, with 2022 still at 407 — this is a decline across nearly a decade, not noise around a plateau.
Core synthesis chemistry is the densest claim zone
C08G condensation-polymer claims appear in the vast majority of records, nearly double the next subclass. New dianhydride-diamine routes face the thickest prior art; downstream processing and application classes are comparatively open.
US and China lead, Korea is the smallest of the six
The United States and China are the two largest receiving offices, followed by Europe and Japan; South Korea, at 345, is the smallest of the tracked offices despite the country's electronics-manufacturing base.
Even the largest portfolios have gone quiet
钟渴化学工业, 三井化学, UBE, DuPont and 日产化学 all show zero or negative filings in the latest tracked year, several down 67-100% year over year — the leaders built their positions earlier in the window, not now.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to polyimide polymer synthesis, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the portfolio, and where they've stopped filing
A small set of Japanese, Korean, Chinese and US chemical majors account for the deepest polyimide synthesis portfolios, but recent-year filing has slowed across nearly all of them.
Filing is concentrated among established specialty-chemical majors
Assignees such as 钟渴化学工业, UBE, 三井化学 and 纳幕尔杜邦公司 anchor the portfolio, often filing jointly with affiliated entities — the strongest co-assignee pair, 钟渴化学工业股份有限公司 and 锺渴化学工业株式会社, appears 27 times.
Legacy leaders are filing less, not more
钟渴化学工业股份有限公司 dropped 67% year over year to a single latest-year filing; 日产化学 fell 100% to zero. None of the tracked top assignees show growth in the most recent year.
Cross-entity filing reflects joint ventures and affiliates
The UBE / 郡是 pairing (18 shared filings) and the DuPont / MORALEZ JESUS G pairing (12) point to joint-development or inventor-assignment structures rather than open licensing partners.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Kaneka Corporation | 1 | -67% |
| Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. | 0 | — |
| UBE Corporation | 0 | — |
| E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (DuPont) | 0 | — |
| Nissan Chemical Corporation | 0 | -100% |
| LG Chem, Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Nitto Denko Corporation | 0 | — |
| PI Advanced Materials Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a mature core chemistry with pockets of open claim space at the edges — application-specific formulations and processing routes are where the next filings are more likely to land cleanly.
Map a specific sub-branch against prior art
Pull the full claim set for a candidate route — such as low-CTE optical copolymers or solvent-free imidization — against the C08G/C08L prior art before drafting.
Explore in Eureka →Track the assignees still active
Confirm which of the historically dominant filers, if any, have resumed filing since the latest tracked year, since publication lag can mask a real resurgence.
Explore in Eureka →Common questions about polyimide synthesis patents
Filing volume has declined since a 2017 peak of 435 publications, falling to 44 in the most recent partial year, with the 2022 midpoint still at 407. That trajectory points to a maturing field rather than a growing one, though publication lag of roughly 18 months means the very latest year understates real activity. New filings are more likely to succeed in less-crowded application or processing niches than in the core dianhydride-diamine chemistry.
Japanese and Korean specialty-chemical majors such as 钟渴化学工业, UBE, 三井化学 and 日产化学, alongside DuPont, anchor the deepest historical portfolios in this corpus, often filing jointly with affiliated entities. However, recent-year momentum data shows all of these assignees at zero or negative year-over-year filing, meaning their positions were largely built earlier in the tracked window rather than currently expanding.
The IPC composition shows claim density concentrated in core condensation polymerization (C08G) and general polymer compositions (C08L), while application-facing classes like printed-circuit dielectrics, coatings and laminate adhesion sit at a fraction of that volume. Sub-areas such as low-CTE optical copolymer design, aqueous poly(amic acid) routes and solvent-free imidization processing show comparatively thin coverage relative to the base chemistry. That doesn't guarantee novelty, but it does mean the prior-art thicket is thinner there.
Citation counts accumulate over time within a searched corpus, so records like US7071287B2 and US5406124A that have been public for two decades or more simply have had more opportunities to be cited than a 2021 filing. This is a signal of historical influence on the field's foundational chemistry, not a measure of which patents matter most for a filing decision today. Newer filings should be checked against these highly-cited records for freedom-to-operate, but the count itself isn't a currency signal.
The United States (2,400 records) and China (1,999) are the two largest receiving offices in this dataset, followed by Europe (1,693) and Japan (1,489). South Korea, at 345, is the smallest of the six major offices tracked, and WIPO PCT filings (476) are relatively modest, suggesting many applicants file directly in target jurisdictions rather than centralising through the PCT route.
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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.