**Figure 2.**

*Evolution of the number of assignees.*

applications/assignees was indicated by an increase in the number of patents filed in Japan in 1990. The second surge in patent applications/assignees occurred in 2000 as a consequence of patent filings from China.

The trend of patenting different categories of amorphous alloys is shown in **Figure 3**. Fe-based amorphous alloys had the most active patenting activity in the

**65**

**Figure 4.** *Technology life cycle.*

*Insight into Bulk Metallic Glass Technology Development Trajectory: Mapping from Patent…*

period of investigation. These Fe-based patents were filed by mostly Japanese corporations and research institutes mainly due to their magnetic properties, which can be exploited in the technology fields of electric/magnetic devices, energy storage devices, and some semiconductor devices [24, 25]. On the other hand, more than Ni-/Co-based and Al-based amorphous alloys, Ti-based and/or Zr-based amorphous alloys occupied the second role of patenting activity because these amorphous alloys possess superior mechanical properties and biocompatibility and can be widely used in the biomedical industry, even though applications in electronic and energy

**Figure 4** shows the technology life cycle curve for amorphous alloys in the present study. Grasping the technology life cycle curve is critical for researchers and R&D managers in assessing further trends in technological development. As pointed out by Trappey et al., a typical technology life cycle curve can be divided into four stages: (1) introductory, (2) growth, (3) maturity, and (4) decline [28]. In the introductory stage, the number of patents and assignees are extremely low because very few corporations have invested in the field. In the following years, more and more assignees become involved in the prospective technology field due to a reduction of uncertainty in the market and technology outlook, which also leads to a gradual increase in patent applications as the life cycle moves into the growth stage. On the other hand, if the number of patents and the number of assignees begin to decrease, the stage is classified as technological maturity. Only a few corporations are willing to invest in such a technology.

Therefore, in the present study, the rapid increase in the numbers of patents and assignees after 2000 indicated that the technology had entered the growth stage. The average numbers of patents and assignees, respectively, increased from 47 and 52 in 2000 to 157 and 86 in 2015. The characteristic of this growth stage is the absence of technical problems and market uncertainty, which leads to more companies becoming involved in developing related products for the market. This stage is

**3.2 Amorphous alloy development: analysis by country and assignee nationality**

**Figure 5** shows the number of patent application in various countries and their evolutionary trends. As shown in the figure, China, Japan, the United States, Korea, and Europe were the top five patent-filing countries/regions, indicating their potential market attraction. For example, the total number of patent applications in China was

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81733*

conversion devices were also widely found [26, 27].

a possible explanation for the surge in patenting in China.

**Figure 3.** *Patenting activity for different amorphous alloys.*

*Insight into Bulk Metallic Glass Technology Development Trajectory: Mapping from Patent… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81733*

period of investigation. These Fe-based patents were filed by mostly Japanese corporations and research institutes mainly due to their magnetic properties, which can be exploited in the technology fields of electric/magnetic devices, energy storage devices, and some semiconductor devices [24, 25]. On the other hand, more than Ni-/Co-based and Al-based amorphous alloys, Ti-based and/or Zr-based amorphous alloys occupied the second role of patenting activity because these amorphous alloys possess superior mechanical properties and biocompatibility and can be widely used in the biomedical industry, even though applications in electronic and energy conversion devices were also widely found [26, 27].

**Figure 4** shows the technology life cycle curve for amorphous alloys in the present study. Grasping the technology life cycle curve is critical for researchers and R&D managers in assessing further trends in technological development. As pointed out by Trappey et al., a typical technology life cycle curve can be divided into four stages: (1) introductory, (2) growth, (3) maturity, and (4) decline [28]. In the introductory stage, the number of patents and assignees are extremely low because very few corporations have invested in the field. In the following years, more and more assignees become involved in the prospective technology field due to a reduction of uncertainty in the market and technology outlook, which also leads to a gradual increase in patent applications as the life cycle moves into the growth stage. On the other hand, if the number of patents and the number of assignees begin to decrease, the stage is classified as technological maturity. Only a few corporations are willing to invest in such a technology.

Therefore, in the present study, the rapid increase in the numbers of patents and assignees after 2000 indicated that the technology had entered the growth stage. The average numbers of patents and assignees, respectively, increased from 47 and 52 in 2000 to 157 and 86 in 2015. The characteristic of this growth stage is the absence of technical problems and market uncertainty, which leads to more companies becoming involved in developing related products for the market. This stage is a possible explanation for the surge in patenting in China.

#### **3.2 Amorphous alloy development: analysis by country and assignee nationality**

**Figure 5** shows the number of patent application in various countries and their evolutionary trends. As shown in the figure, China, Japan, the United States, Korea, and Europe were the top five patent-filing countries/regions, indicating their potential market attraction. For example, the total number of patent applications in China was

**Figure 4.** *Technology life cycle.*

*Solid State Physics - Metastable, Spintronics Materials and Mechanics of Deformable...*

applications/assignees was indicated by an increase in the number of patents filed in Japan in 1990. The second surge in patent applications/assignees occurred in 2000

The trend of patenting different categories of amorphous alloys is shown in **Figure 3**. Fe-based amorphous alloys had the most active patenting activity in the

as a consequence of patent filings from China.

*Patenting activity for different amorphous alloys.*

**64**

**Figure 3.**

**Figure 2.**

**Figure 1.**

*Evolution of the number of assignees.*

*Evolution of the number of patents.*

**Figure 5.** *Number of patents and its evolution by country.*

844, which implies the commercial value of bulk metallic glasses in the Chinese market. Another interesting event in the same figure is the R&D investment transfer from the United States and Japan to China. Discovered in the United States and further exploited in Japan, the number of patents related to metallic glass alloys in Japan in the last three decades gradually decreased from 233 (1991–2000) to 181 (2001–2010) and then to 73 (2011–2015). In contrast, unlike those in other countries, the patents filed in China increased by a wide margin, from 35 (1991–2000) to 358 (2001–2010) and then 444 (2011–2015). The above surge in patent filing in China, often called China's patent boom, occurred not only in amorphous alloy technology but also in other technological areas. As pointed out by several research teams, a decrease in the cost of filing a patent and the initiation of a subsidy program for patent applications were two major causes of the explosion in patent applications in China [29, 30].

Like that in China, patenting behavior in the United States shows a similar trend of progressive increases in the numbers of patents filed over the past three decades: from 72 (1991–2000) to 140 (2001–2010) and finally to 135 (2011–2015). In Korea and Europe, however, the number of patents filed has declined since 2011. The explanation of phenomenon is still unclear and will require further study.

#### **3.3 Analysis by top ten patent assignees**

Analysis of the patent assignees from the original patent data pool can help researchers to understand the technological development strategies and product development trajectories of large companies. Therefore, the top ten patent assignees with a focus on the development of amorphous alloys are summarized in **Table 1**. The top ten patent assignees were mainly from Japan (7), China (2), and the United States (1). Moreover, the assignee from the United States was an academic institution, whereas those from Japan and China were mostly corporations and research institutions.

The number of patent families and average number of countries where patents were filed are also shown in **Table 1**. The variation in patent families was related to the total number of patents; that is, the patent families increased monotonically in conjunction with the number of patent applications. The top assignee, California Institute of Technology (CIT), was associated with 633 patent families, which is obviously higher than those of the other assignees. The reason for this large difference in the number of patent families could be attributed to the fact that CIT filed its patents in many countries (an average of 7). In contrast, Chinese assignees generally filed patents only in their home country, which explains the similarity between the number of patents and patent families.

**67**

**Table 2.**

*Insight into Bulk Metallic Glass Technology Development Trajectory: Mapping from Patent…*

California Inst. Techn. (US) 96 633 16.0 7 Hitachi Metals LTD (JP) 76 376 4.7 5 BYD Company LTD (CN) 68 134 2.1 2 Univ. Tohoku (JP) 67 221 2.0 3 Nippon Steel Corp. (JP) 67 270 3.5 4 YKK Corp. (JP) 62 252 4.1 4 ALPS Electric Co. LTD (JP) 59 192 3.9 3

**Patent families**

**Average cited times**

45 103 6.9 2

35 48 1.9 1

**Average Number of application countries**

**number of patents**

**Table 1** also presents the average number of citations of each assignee's patents; this number can be used to assess the quality of a patent [31, 32]. A weak relationship was found to exist between the average number of citations and the total number of patents/patent families. Therefore, a high number of citations indicate that more related inventions followed, which usually implies a higher economic value of the patent. In addition, patents filed by CIT got the most attention. They had the highest number of citations (16.0), which was considerably higher than those of other assignees. In contrast, patents owned by China were rarely cited, which could

JFE Steel KK (JP) 29 93 3.5 3

be associated with their short filing periods (**Table 2**).

*Trend of the patent applications for top ten patent assignees.*

**five patent families**

Japan Science & Tech Corp.

Inst. Metal Res. Chinese Acad. Sc. (CN)

*Top ten patent assignees.*

(JP)

**Table 1.**

**(number of active years)**

**Assignee**

**3.4 Technological development strategy analysis: analysis of the top** 

The analysis of the top five patent families is shown in **Table 3**. The first patent family, US2009236017A1 [33], proposes an apparatus and method comprising

California Inst. Techn. (20) - 18 31 43 92 Hitachi Metals LTD. (27) 3 16 32 18 69 BYD Company Limited (9) - - 46 22 68 UNIV. Tohoku (12) - - 51 14 65 Nippon Steel CORP. (22) 5 24 35 3 67 YKK CORP (15) 3 51 8 - 62 ALPS Electric Co. LTD. (15) 11 45 3 - 59 Japan Science & Tech. Corp. (13) - 16 29 - 45 Inst. Metal Res. Chinese Acad. Sc. (14) - 1 14 12 27 JFE Steel KK (10) - 23 - 5 28

**1991 ~2000**

**2001 ~2010**

**2011 ~2015** **Total**

**1981 ~1990**

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81733*

**Assignee (nationality) Total** 

*Insight into Bulk Metallic Glass Technology Development Trajectory: Mapping from Patent… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81733*


#### **Table 1.**

*Solid State Physics - Metastable, Spintronics Materials and Mechanics of Deformable...*

844, which implies the commercial value of bulk metallic glasses in the Chinese market. Another interesting event in the same figure is the R&D investment transfer from the United States and Japan to China. Discovered in the United States and further exploited in Japan, the number of patents related to metallic glass alloys in Japan in the last three decades gradually decreased from 233 (1991–2000) to 181 (2001–2010) and then to 73 (2011–2015). In contrast, unlike those in other countries, the patents filed in China increased by a wide margin, from 35 (1991–2000) to 358 (2001–2010) and then 444 (2011–2015). The above surge in patent filing in China, often called China's patent boom, occurred not only in amorphous alloy technology but also in other technological areas. As pointed out by several research teams, a decrease in the cost of filing a patent and the initiation of a subsidy program for patent applications were two major

Like that in China, patenting behavior in the United States shows a similar trend of progressive increases in the numbers of patents filed over the past three decades: from 72 (1991–2000) to 140 (2001–2010) and finally to 135 (2011–2015). In Korea and Europe, however, the number of patents filed has declined since 2011. The explanation of phenomenon is still unclear and will require further study.

Analysis of the patent assignees from the original patent data pool can help researchers to understand the technological development strategies and product development trajectories of large companies. Therefore, the top ten patent assignees with a focus on the development of amorphous alloys are summarized in **Table 1**. The top ten patent assignees were mainly from Japan (7), China (2), and the United States (1). Moreover, the assignee from the United States was an academic institution, whereas those from Japan and China were mostly corporations and research institutions.

The number of patent families and average number of countries where patents were filed are also shown in **Table 1**. The variation in patent families was related to the total number of patents; that is, the patent families increased monotonically in conjunction with the number of patent applications. The top assignee, California Institute of Technology (CIT), was associated with 633 patent families, which is obviously higher than those of the other assignees. The reason for this large difference in the number of patent families could be attributed to the fact that CIT filed its patents in many countries (an average of 7). In contrast, Chinese assignees generally filed patents only in their home country, which explains the similarity

causes of the explosion in patent applications in China [29, 30].

**3.3 Analysis by top ten patent assignees**

*Number of patents and its evolution by country.*

between the number of patents and patent families.

**66**

**Figure 5.**

*Top ten patent assignees.*

**Table 1** also presents the average number of citations of each assignee's patents; this number can be used to assess the quality of a patent [31, 32]. A weak relationship was found to exist between the average number of citations and the total number of patents/patent families. Therefore, a high number of citations indicate that more related inventions followed, which usually implies a higher economic value of the patent. In addition, patents filed by CIT got the most attention. They had the highest number of citations (16.0), which was considerably higher than those of other assignees. In contrast, patents owned by China were rarely cited, which could be associated with their short filing periods (**Table 2**).
