Polymers, Specialty, R&D Trends

R&D trends within competitive companies can be an important factor in analyzing competitors' positions and making corporate plans. The short study in this review is intended to illustrate the utility, as well as the limitations, of a patent survey in revealing company R&D trends. The patent survey includes 603 nonequivalent patents that cover filing dates in the years 1982, 1983, 1984, and part of 1985 on polyphenylene oxide (or polyphenylene ether), polyphenylene sulfide, polyarylates, polyimides, polyamide-imides, polyetherimide, polyetheretherketone, polysulfones, and polyethersulfones.