Shape Memory Polymer Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- Filing peaked in 2022 at 16 families and has not been matched since — the field's most recent years show flat-to-declining output rather than sustained growth.
- The most-cited prior art is two decades old US6388043B1 and US6160084A each carry citation counts in the hundreds, meaning newer filers are still designing around foundational 1990s-era claims.
- Momentum has gone quiet at the top the strongest co-assignee pair is down 50% year-on-year and several other leading organisations show zero filings in the latest year.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks 157 patent families filed against shape memory polymer and 4D printing material claims, searched across thermally triggered recovery, programmable shape change, multi-shape memory and recovery stress language. The IPC footprint spans C08G and C08L polymer chemistry classes through to B29C shaping and B33Y additive manufacturing, showing that the field is claimed as much through processing method as through the polymer composition itself.
Coverage runs from 2015 through the 2026 data cut-off. Publication lags filing by roughly eighteen months, so the last one to two years in any chart will understate true filing activity until later records publish.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 157 families: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
A peak in 2022, then a pullback
Annual filings rose from 11 in 2017 to a peak of 16 in 2022, then eased off. With 2022 sitting at the midpoint of the observed range, the trend reads as flat or declining rather than accelerating — a pattern more consistent with a mature, occupied claim space than an emerging one.
Chemistry classes dominate, processing classes trail
C08G (condensation polymers, 114 records) and C08L (polymer compositions, 106) between them cover the great majority of families, confirming that most protection sits on the polymer chemistry itself. B29C shaping (60) and A61L sterilising/disinfecting (55) show a strong secondary cluster around medical-device processing, while B33Y additive manufacturing (23) is comparatively thin — a smaller, more recent slice of the same corpus.
Shares are the percentage of the 157 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Shape Memory Polymer Technology Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about shape memory polymer technology landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe prior art everyone designs around
Transesterification-induced permanent reshaping in a shape memory polymer (US20170197356A1)
Zhejiang University's filing discloses an ester-containing crosslinked polymer whose permanent shape can be reset through transesterification, with transition temperature tunable between 20-150°C and reshaping temperature controlled by catalyst loading. The stated advance is combining shape memory effect and permanent plastic deformation in a single polymer, triggering each function under different processing conditions rather than requiring separate materials.Filed 2017-07-13.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6388043B1 | Shape memory polymers | 1,117 |
| 2 | US6160084A | Biodegradable shape memory polymers | 914 |
| 3 | US6720402B2 | Shape memory polymers | 676 |
| 4 | WO1999042147A1 | Biodegradable shape memory polymers | 259 |
| 5 | WO1999042528A2 | Shape memory polymers | 169 |
| 6 | US20060036045A1 | Shape memory polymers | 163 |
| 7 | US20030055198A1 | Shape memory polymers | 139 |
| 8 | US20110039967A1 | Shape Memory Polymers | 53 |
| 9 | US20130253086A1 | Shape memory polymers | 46 |
| 10 | JP2002504585A | 形状記憶ポリマー | 44 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings; treat this as a measure of influence on later claim drafting, not of present-day 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.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three signals stand out once family counts, citations and geography are read together.
Growth has plateaued, not accelerated
With the midpoint year matching the observed peak, this is not a technology in an early growth curve. New entrants are filing into a space where the foundational chemistry claims are already a decade or more old.
Foundational claims are still the reference point
The five most-cited records in this corpus were all filed as PCT or US applications with 'shape memory polymer' or 'biodegradable shape memory polymer' in the title, and three of the five figures sit above 250 citations. Anyone drafting new composition claims should expect examiners to cite this cluster.
US-centred filing with a thinner China presence
The United States accounts for the largest single share of receiving-office filings, with PCT and European filings roughly matched behind it. China's 16 records is notably smaller than the US or PCT/EPO totals, suggesting the domestic Chinese filing base has not yet scaled to match the international one.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to shape memory polymer technology landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and who has gone quiet
Ten identified co-assignee pairs point to a small set of research-institution collaborations rather than a broad competitive field. Momentum in the most recent year has cooled across nearly every one of them.
A national-lab and university pairing leads by a wide margin
The strongest co-assignee pair in the dataset outpaces the next pairing by a factor of two, pointing to a sustained, long-running joint research programme rather than a one-off filing.
An individual-inventor pairing holds the second spot
LI GUOQIANG and MENG HARPER appear together across 7 families, a pattern more typical of a small inventor-led group than an institutional programme, and their latest-year filing count sits at zero.
MIT-linked filings round out the top collaborations
A pairing linked to Robert S. Langer's lab and a dedicated shape-memory materials company shows 5 shared families, reflecting the academic-to-spinout pathway common in this field.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC | 1 | -50% |
| Texas A&M University | 1 | 0% |
| MnemoScience GmbH | 0 | — |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | 0 | — |
| LI GUOQIANG | 0 | — |
| MENG HARPER | 0 | — |
| GKSS-Forschungszentrum Geesthacht GmbH | 0 | — |
| Cornell University | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, portfolio building, or licensing.
Check freedom-to-operate against the cited core
Before drafting new composition claims, screen against the small cluster of highly-cited foundational patents that examiners repeatedly cite in this space.
Run a freedom-to-operate search in EurekaWatch the quiet leaders for reactivation
Several institutions with strong historical filing counts show zero or declining activity in the latest year — a licensing or acquisition opportunity if they are stepping back from active prosecution.
Track assignee activity in EurekaExplore the under-claimed processing branches
B33Y additive manufacturing and multi-shape cycling show materially thinner filing density than the core chemistry classes, suggesting room for a differentiated claim.
Explore white space in EurekaCommon questions on shape memory polymer patents
The core chemistry is classified mainly under C08G (condensation polymers) and C08L (polymer compositions), which together account for the large majority of records in this landscape. Processing and application claims sit in adjacent classes: B29C for plastics shaping, A61L for sterilising and disinfecting formulations used in medical devices, and B33Y for additive manufacturing where the material is deposited as part of a 4D printing process. A thorough search needs to span both the chemistry and the processing classes, since a single product can be claimed from either angle.
The most-cited records in this corpus are US6388043B1, US6160084A and US6720402B2, all titled around 'shape memory polymers' or 'biodegradable shape memory polymers', alongside two related WIPO/PCT filings. These carry citation counts running into the hundreds and low thousands, meaning most later filings in the space were drafted with awareness of this cluster. Newer entrants should expect patent examiners to cite this group as prior art regardless of which specific polymer chemistry is being claimed.
Not currently, based on this dataset. Filings rose from 11 in 2017 to a peak of 16 in 2022, and the years since have not matched that peak, with the most recent partial year sitting far lower. Because publication lags filing by around eighteen months, the very last year or two will always look artificially low, but the multi-year pattern is one of a plateau rather than sustained growth.
The strongest documented collaboration is a co-assignee pairing between a national laboratory and a research university, appearing together across 15 shared families, well ahead of the next-strongest pairing. Several of the organisations with the deepest filing histories, including this lead pairing, show flat or declining activity in the most recent year, which suggests the competitive picture may be shifting toward new entrants rather than continued dominance by the historical leaders.
The additive manufacturing overlap (B33Y) is the thinnest of the major IPC classes in this corpus relative to the core chemistry classes, despite 4D printing material being part of the search scope, indicating that claim coverage for printable shape memory formulations has not kept pace with the chemistry itself. Multi-shape (beyond dual-shape) memory cycling and recovery-stress calibration for surgical applications are similarly under-represented against the volume of general composition claims, making both reasonable areas to check before assuming the space is occupied.
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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.