A patent intelligence analysis aimed at identifying eco-friendly methodologies for recycling PVB to be used as windscreens interlayer

World Patent Information 59 (2019) 101932

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A patent intelligence analysis aimed at identifying eco-friendly methodologies for recycling PVB to be used as windscreens interlayer Riccardo Priore Area di Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica, AREA Science Park, Padriciano 99, 34149, Trieste, Italy

A R T I C L E I N F O

A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Patent intelligence Poly-vinyl-butyral Interlayer Laminated glass Recycling End of life vehicles

Identification of methodologies for recycling laminated glass, especially the interlayer film, and their contex­ tualization within the glass recycling field implicated an extensive patent search. During the last decade the technology centre L’Urederra exploited a methodology for recycling the poly-vinyl-butyral to be reused as interlayer in windscreens. Subsequent rounds of patents selection were aimed at identifying equivalent or innovative methodologies. Few documents address the recycling of the poly-vinyl-butyral film describing a stage implicating a mechanic separation followed by a basic solution treatment. According to a recent journal article, such stages combination is crucial for obtaining recycled PVB compatible with its reincorporation in windscreens.

1. Introduction The main goal of the present study is that of detecting technical so­ lutions equivalent or perhaps innovative, in any case suitable for the reincorporation of recycled PVB in new laminated glass. So far, a methodology conceived for such implementation has been developed at the technology centre Lurederra. It is plausible that an extensive patent research, a.k.a. patent intelligence, can provide helpful information for refining a prior-art analysis, being especially suitable for evaluating the relevance of PVB recycling referred to the broader context of glass recycling. Therefore, stakeholders of such study include, being not limited to, researchers, industrial R&D staff, patent agents, entrepre­ neurs, investors. Laminated safety glass consists of two or more glass plies bonded together with an elastomeric interlayer, usually polyvinyl butyral (PVB) or Ethyl Vinyl Acetate (EVA). After breakage, the interlayer holds the resultant glass shards in place and, in most cases, the glass remains in the frame when laminated glass fractures [1]. Each year, the lives of 8 million vehicles in Europe come to an end [2]. The European Directive 2000/53/EC, established that the level of reused “vehicles out of use” (a.k.a. ELV) should be 95% for the year 2015 [3], 90% of which is recycling [2]. The recycling of ELV materials has been promoted for several years across all EU countries. However, this effort in the majority of countries

has been limited to materials such as steel and aluminium, being minor wastes, such as glazing, considered less important. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that 90–95% of this significant quantity of glass is disposed in landfills, where it is mixed with other residues from shredding operations [2]. It is possible to dismantle the glass from ELV, collect and transport the glass to treatment units, purify the glass and obtain clean and reusable glass raw material called cullet. The glass production industry uses cullet to two advantages: it is relatively less expensive than raw material (Silica) and consumes less electrical energy in the furnaces for melting. Besides the aforementioned economic advantages, using cullet saves tons of natural resources from being consumed to make glass products. Thus, the reuse of cullet positively contributes in several ways to the environment [2], since, for example, float glass production is the greatest contributor to both human toxicity and air acidification [4]. The need of cullet for the glass industry has steadily been increasing in recent years. About 90% of the world’s flat glass is produced as float glass, mainly used to supply the building industry, but also available for the car manufacturing [2]. The total worldwide amount of produced PVB sheets is actually estimated around 120 million kg per year [5], since not only glass contributes to the total weight of a vehicle but it also comprises around 5% of total building weight. While the glass is recycled there is instead a growing stockpile of used interlayer that is proving difficult to dispose

Abbreviations: PVB, poly-vinyl-butyrate; EVA, ethyl-vinyl-acetate; (T)PU, (thermoplastic)-poly-urethane; ELV, end of life vehicle; PISE, patent information service for experts. E-mail address: [email protected]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wpi.2019.101932 Received 16 October 2018; Received in revised form 23 October 2019; Accepted 26 October 2019 Available online 15 November 2019 0172-2190/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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World Patent Information 59 (2019) 101932

of. There are no cost-effective applications for reclaimed interlayer and current disposal options are incineration and landfill [4]. The preferential use of PVB-layers in laminated safety glass is based on properties, the most important being its high transparency and tearing strength, a favourable elongation at fracture, its high breakdown resistance, an adjustable glass adhesion and a high stability regarding both ultra violet radiation and temperature [6]. The separation levels achieved during laminated glass dismantling and the purity specifica­ tion required by the recyclate customers result in many of the original polymer properties being retained [4]. Few specialized companies deal with the re-application of PVB sheets obtained from recycled windshield. All present recycling processes produce a good quality of glass scrap which is fully re-used in the glass batch. However, the separated PVB waste is often not recyclable due to high amount of glass, water content in the sheet, parts of color PVB sheets, mixed of various PVBs and foreign plastic matters [5]. A pioneering PVB purification system is based on an international patent application filed by Lurederra [7] citing the possibility of using the recycled PVB as interlayer of newly fabricated safety glass. Consis­ tently, two reports [3,8], detected through surfing the internet, mention about a system that could solve the problem of windscreen recycling based on a method for separating the glass which was impossible to remove by conventional glass-PVB separation systems.

Fig. 1. Organization of the main tables of Patstat. The scheme, reproduced by kind permission of EPO, shows a representative sample of the tables avail­ able from Patstat, being displayed those typically used to retrieve basic infor­ mation from patent documents. Relevant bibliographic data or legal status information can be selected by means of SQL based queries that essentially allow to group the attributes required by the Patstat user as rows displayed in form of output table generated upon running the script. By default, records are stored as attributes present in separate tables such as, for example, those listed in the scheme. Upon running the script, for each relevant patent document matching the user’s input, accurate pooling of information fished from the at­ tributes present in different tables is performed, thus generating each row of the output table. The correct accomplishment of this task crucially depends on the presence of identical ‘appln_id’ values, each one indexing the appropriate pat­ ent information stored within each attribute specified in the SQL script.

2. Methodology A thorough investigation regarding the recycling of laminated glass may require either patent documents or scientific literature analysis. Being our research institution affiliated to the Patlib network, the accessibility to patent data is greatly facilitated, however our search strategy has also taken into account alternative forms of divulgation, in primis the articles considered as Non-Patent Literature (NPL).

2.2. Patent search strategy A preliminary search by means of GPI is based on the following query: Clas ¼ (B29B17 B03B* B02C13 B30B9) AND WORD ¼ ((lamin* tempered)/1W glass) (vetro/1W (stratificato laminato)) (verre/1W feuillet� e) verbundglas* (vidr*/1W laminado) (слоистого/1W стекла). Such search was aimed at ranking the most relevant IPC/CPC clas­ sification codes from a relatively small sample consisting of about 70 results (GPI accessed during February 2018). Classification codes like B09B3 (Destroying solid waste or transforming solid waste or contami­ nated solids into something useful or harmless) and B29B17 (Recovery of plastics or other constituents of waste material containing plastics) are among those most frequently assigned by the competent patent authorities to filed patent applications. Though B02C13 (Disintegrating by mills having rotary beater ele­ ments; Hammer mills) does not appear frequently cited, it has been included in the search performed by means of Patstat since technical solutions based on a mechanical separation were looked for. Patstat queries are written in SQL language. Scripts are provided in Ref. [11]. Patstat online data are pooled in tables, an exhaustive list being available at the database URL [9]. A simplified scheme of the several kind of patent data, a.k.a. as attributes, is illustrated in Fig. 1. As evi­ denced in such diagram, the patent information can be extracted by SQL queries connecting different tables. Usually data in each table are univocally identified by means of the attribute appln_id. The most elementary type of query aimed at patent data consultation and downloading is based on the following syntax: SELECT → one or more tables’ attributes (eg. appln_id, filing_date, assignee, …). FROM → one or more PATSTAT tables (usually tls201_appln for bibliographic data; if additional tables are needed, as from table con­ nections highlighted in Fig. 1, then JOIN clause is used to link each table to the other). WHERE → attributes of specific interest (eg. filing_date interval, keywords/classification codes combined by AND, OR, NOT … operators - as in Table 1) optional: ORDER BY to visualize results as an ordered list

2.1. Databases tailored for patent and NPL intelligence Two databases of the European Patent Office have been interrogated. Patstat online and Global Patent Index (GPI) are included in a platform named Patent Information Service for Experts, alias PISE [9]. Patstat is the EPO Worldwide Patent Statistical Database tailored to facilitate statistical analysis rather than the classical prior art investi­ gation. Its interrogation is performed by means of scripts written in SQL (Structured Query Language). The database includes worldwide bibliographic and legal content, as well as procedural content from EP Register and it’s updated twice per year. GPI, like Espacenet, allows free search of patents based on bibliographic data and patent classification systems (IPC/CPC). The database includes worldwide searchable data from both the EPO’s DocDB bibliographic worldwide patent database collection and INPADOC worldwide legal status database and is updated weekly. Tools for innovation monitoring (TIM) is developed at the JRC’s Competence Centre on Text Mining and Analysis [10]. TIM has been used in order to integrate the results of the patent searches with data of the NPL documents. Queries used for interrogation of such database are specified in the legends of Fig. 6 and Fig. 13, respectively. TIM’s data­ base contains mainly three type of documents: scientific publications (articles, conference proceedings, reviews and book chapters), patents and EU granted projects. More than 50 mln. documents are currently indexed in the database. The coverage depends on what is available at the time of indexing the data from the providers. Patent documents are extracted from PATSTAT. Scientific publications consist of documents collected from the database Scopus (Elsevier) and published since year 1996. A dataset is included in TIM, regarding project funded by EU under FP5 (1998–2002), FP6 (2002–2006), FP7 (2007–2013) and Ho­ rizon 2020 from 2014 to present.

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Table 1 A schematic representation of search strategies aimed at patent retrieval by means of Patstat online is shown. Sequence of search stages:

PHASE A → …

→ PHASE B Query A

→ PHASE B Query B

→ PHASE C1 Query C1

→ PHASE C2 Query C20

→ PHASE C2 Query C200

Scope of search:

Overview of glass recycling

Overview of laminated glass recycling implying mechanical treatment

Like Phase B, yet tailored to PVB recycling

Like Phase B, yet tailored to EVA recycling

Like Phase B, yet tailored to TPU recycling

Number of records (¼ non duplicated appln_id amt. in raw data table) Search concept(s): keywords (Boolean operators if applicable) AND …

1125

22

Same goal of query A, yet search rather based on CPC classification code for comminution 10

18

20

3

GLASS RECYCLING (þsynonym, translation)

LAMINATED GLASS (þsynonym, translation) AND [RECYCLING (þsynonym, translation) AND MECHANIC COMMINUTION (synonym, translation)]

LIKE Query A (except that mechanic comminution is optional) AND PVB

LIKE Query A (except that mechanic comminution is optional) AND EVA

LIKE Query A (except that mechanic comminution is optional) AND TPU

… AND [IPC OR CPC] Classification codes (8 digits)

B29B 17 OR B02C 13 OR B09B 3

B29B 17 OR B02C 13 OR B09B 3

LAMINATED GLASS (þsynonym, translation) AND [RECYCLING (þsynonym, translation) AND CPC classification code (�MECHANIC COMMINUTION)] [B29B 17 OR B02C 13 OR B09B 3] AND Y02W30/521

B29B 17 OR Y02W 30

B29B 17 OR Y02W 30

B29B 17 OR Y02W 30

attribute(s). The search strategy aimed at retrieving the relevant patent data was started from the broadest field of glass recycling and progressively narrowed down in order to focus on plastic interlayer recycling as explained in Ref. [11]. A schematization of the sequence of search phases is provided in Table 1, the scope of each phase and the amount of retrieved patent applications being also indicated. As far as the meaning of each classification code is concerned, details can either be found in Ref. [11] as well as be searched for in the Classification search tool available from Espacenet [12]. Data presented in Results, see paragraphs 3.1 to 3.5, have been ob­ tained by interrogation of Patstat online, Autumn 2017 version, unless otherwise specified. In order to test for the quality of the data, as detailed in paragraph 3.6 of Results, an upgrading of the search has been performed using Orbit Intelligence database for prior-art seach (see below) and Patstat online (Spring 2019 version) in order to check for potential change of the number of records, having replicated several search phases described in paragraphs 3.1 to 3.5 after one year.

2.3. Comparison of patent intelligence analysis and prior-art search Orbit Intelligence is a patent database provided by Questel [13]. The coverage of this database, updated every day, is global, including more than 100 million patents and over 54 million patent families. A prior-art search verification has been performed using the Fampat collection, being such search methodology focused on patent families. Queries, used as described in Results (see 3.6), are listed below: 1 : ((((LAMINATED W GLASS) OR (SAFETY W GLASS)))/CLMS/ DESC/ODES/KEYW/TI/AB/TX/ICLM AND ((BASIC 3D SOLU­ TION) OR (ALKALINE 3D SOLUTION) OR (ALKALI 3D SOLU­ TION))/CLMS/DESC/ODES/KEYW/TI/AB/TX/OBJ/ICLM/ADB) AND (“ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY")/TECT (46 records) 2 : (PVB)/AB/CLMS/DESC/ODES/ICLM/KEYW/TI/TX (>36000 records) 3 : 1 AND 2 (10 records).

Fig. 2. Distribution of filing events over time (Phase A). Application events have been searched for by consulting the PASTAT online database. A total amount of 1125 filing events is mapped. 3

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Fig. 3. Distribution of filing events over time and mapping of patent authorities (Phase A). Applications filed to the authorities identified by country codes displayed on the horizontal axis have been mapped depending on the earliest filing year, ranging from yr. 2006 to 2016. Numbers displayed on the vertical axis correspond to the amount of filing events. Application events have been searched for by consulting the PASTAT online database. A total amount of 622 filing events is mapped.

after the priority date, it is likely that several of the applications mentioned above resulted in granted patents currently valid (for example, see paragraph 3.6 ii, Table 7). It can also be argued that several eastern countries, especially China, but also Japan or Korea, consider the issue of glass recycling as a relevant priority, independently from a specific kind of reutilization of glass as secondary raw material. Consistently, the list of the TOP20 applicants (Fig. 4) includes a relevant fraction of players with the respective headquarters located in eastern countries. As far as glass recycling is concerned, Sharp Corporation demon­ strates a rather continuous interest in the implementation of technical solutions, whereas the involvement of the other players seems rather sporadic. However, this approach does not allow to distinguish between patent applications and granted patents, so in theory some still valid patents could originate from the least recently filed applications. As from Fig. 4, the distribution of filing events between the top players, including companies, research institutions and individuals, may seem rather homogeneous, but considering the whole set of patent families the scenario may change substantially, as elucidated in the following paragraph. The number of patent families can be argued starting from the list of the filed applications. Such data can be downloaded from Patstat Online as a MS Excel sheet that may not only include the so called appln_id, a database attribute specific for each patent application filing event, but also another attribute, the docdb_family_id, univocally identifying each patent family. In most patent databases a family is usually available as a list including a multiplicity of publication numbers, each identifying a patent application which usually shares the priority date with the other family members originating from subsequent filings to different patent authorities. Upon downloading the data from Patstat, the removal of

3. Results 3.1. Phase A: glass recycling Glass is a permanent material that can be infinitely recycled without losing any of its intrinsic properties, therefore making it an extremely valuable secondary raw material. According to the data provided by the Federation of European manufacturers of glass containers, the average glass recycling rate in the EU28 zone has reached the 74% threshold for the first time. This means that over 11.6 million tons were collected throughout the European Union in 2014 or 3.5% more than in the previous year [14]. As explained in the methodology (Table 1 – Phase A), results were obtained using a SQL query essentially focusing on concomitant pres­ ence of the keywords glass and recycling, including synonyms and translation in several foreign languages, plus IPC or CPC classification codes characterizing the mechanical destroying of solid material. The results of a worldwide patent search shows that, on average, each year 50–60 patent applications are filed to the competent authorities, as indicated by the trend line in Fig. 2. Considering applications altogether, having eliminated duplicated records, yet being possibly included ap­ plications referring to the same family but filed to different patent au­ thorities, 1125 records were pooled. Most of them deal with recycling of waste material containing glass or fiberglass, as can be verified from patent documents’ titles or abstracts. Fig. 3 details the distribution of the filing events during the last decade. The application events are distributed considering the earliest filing year, therefore events have been detected likely referring to the most innovative products/methodologies developed for glass recycling. Considering that a granted patent could remain in force for 20 years 4

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Fig. 4. TOP 20 applicants (Phase A). The diameter of the circles is proportional to the number of filed applications.

Fig. 5. Fragmentation of applicants (Phase A). Data from Patstat were downloaded in Excel format and analyzed after having selected one representative document per each patent family. Cases regarding different applications that are members of a unique patent family implying a list of different types of players, for example one corporate plus one academy, are counted as a unique result, being included in the bar whose label displays a combination of players, eg. “company/ university”. In case of individuals who have filed applications because of a collaboration with a corporate or a university, such events are counted only once, i.e. just considering the denomination of the corporate, or the university, and excluding the individual co-assignees names, such as those of inventors/co-inventors. Therefore, the bar labeled “individual” is specifically referred to the patent families whose applicant(s) are not affiliated to or do not cooperate with any of the two organizations mentioned above. “ …” bar refers to the patent families’ amount in which no denomination has been assigned according to Patstat. It is also possible that several Patstat records display the indication “unknown”, such cases being counted separately from the “ …” cases.

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Fig. 6. Mapping of players according to NPL data. Data were obtained upon consulting TIM database having selected the results by means of the filter “ARTICLE”. The query used is: topic:((“recycl* glass"~2) emm_year[2008–2018]). 431 results were retrieved and a representative list of players, most of whom are academies, is shown.

duplicated codes from the list of the docdb_family_id records permits to properly count the patent families characterized by a priority date included within the timeframe 2006–2016 and thus excluding duplica­ tion of data that may originate from counting multiple filings of equivalent applications. Following such selection, a pool consisting of 523 patent families resulted. Such pool of patent families can be also differentiated considering the kind of applicant. In other words, a distinction of assignees in academies, corporates, individuals and governmental organizations is feasible. As evident from Fig. 5, corpo­ rates appear predominating over other assignees, especially academies and individuals considered altogether. Moreover, a quite small number of patent families originates from collaborations between academies and corporates, or between academies and non-profit organizations. Instead of partitioning the applicants following the criteria explained above, essentially based on the count of patent families and the subsequent partition of the assignees, having neglected cases of individuals that appear as co-assignees with corporates or universities to avoid dupli­ cations of data, it is also possible to consider the pool of patent

applications rather than families and partition the applications accord­ ing to the different kind of users. According to the latter strategy, it should be considered that an overestimation of the contribution of in­ dividual assignee is possible, because there may be several cases of in­ dividuals, especially the inventors, that in the patent documents are also included as coassignees along with the companies or the universities to whom such inventors are affiliated. A helpful script, entitled “Frag­ mentation” and aimed at such kind of analysis can be found in Ref. [11]. As explained in example 2.2 of [15], individual applicants were selected excluding denominations of individuals that are just (co)-inventors with the purpose of limiting the potential overestimation described above. Having tested such script on the most recent available data of Patstat online (Spring 2019 edition), it could be assessed that, excluding from the computation the null records, in which no names appear, and having as well excluded the records in which the “unknown” indication appear, companies and individuals predominate over the other kind of assignees in the timeframe 1997–2017, such interval being defined using the earliest filing years. Consistently with the trend shown in Fig. 5, the

Table 2 Phase A search strategy and distribution of IPC and CPC classification codes, respectively. The distribution is either referred to the number of patent families (indicated within brackets) or to a percentage value obtained by means of the mathematical formula cited in the text. IPC code (main group/subgroup)

Frequency

Meaning

CPC code (main group/subgroup)

Frequency

Meaning

B09B3/00

(684) 32.59% (133) 6.33% (107) 5.14% (91) 4.33%

Destroying solid waste or transforming solid waste or contaminated solids into something useful or harmless Recovery of plastics or other constituents of waste material containing plastics … →Separating plastics from other materials

Y02W30/62

Technologies for solid waste management … →→ Plastics recycling Destroying solid waste or transforming ….

→Disintegrating plastics, e.g. by milling …

Y02W30/20

(127) 3.25% (112) 2.87% (101) 2.59% (100) 2.56%

B29B17/00 B29B17/02 B29B17/04

6

B09B3/00 Y02W30/625

Technologies for solid waste management … →→→ Disintegrating plastics Technologies for solid waste management … →→ Related to waste processing or separation

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Fig. 7. Mapping of classification codes regarding glass recycling (Phase A). (Left panel): Distribution of the TOP 20 IPC classification codes (class level): B09B → DISPOSAL OF SOLID WASTE; B29B → Preparation or pre-treatment of the material to be shaped; making granules or preforms; recovery of plastics or other con­ stituents of waste material containing plastics. (Right panel): Distribution of the TOP 20 CPC classification codes (class level): Y02W → Climate change mitigation technologies related to wastewater treatment or waste management, Y02P → climate change mitigation technologies in the production or processing of goods.

number of corporates is 593 while the sum of universities and in­ dividuals is 316. R&D initiatives typically aimed at glass recycling may be also tracked at greater detail, being possible that certain technical achieve­ ments have not been yet protected through patent applications, but rather divulgated as NPL. Fig. 6 shows a selection of the results that can be visualized by means of TIM (Tools for Innovation Monitoring). The

selected results have been restricted to journal publications. Within the timeframe 2008–2018 many collaboration activities appear, in most cases involving academic partners identifiable by edges connections. The relevance of the retrieved patent documents has been assessed by verifying the frequency of the classification codes assigned by the patent authorities to each application as soon as it is received. Both CPC and IPC classification codes have been considered in our analysis.

Fig. 8. Mapping of IPC classification codes regarding laminated glass recycling.The distribution of the IPC classification codes of the results of Query “A” (Phase B) has been obtained following the same approach described for the frequency distribution of classification codes listed in Table 2. B29B17/02 → Recovery of plastics or other constituents of waste material containing plastics … → Separating plastics from other materials). B09B3/00 → Destroying solid waste or transforming solid waste or contaminated solids into something useful or harmless. 7

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Fig. 9. Mapping of CPC classification codes regarding laminated glass recycling. The distribution of a selection of the CPC classification codes of the results of Query “A” (Phase B) is represented in the diagram. Data have been obtained following the same approach described for the frequency distribution of classification codes listed in Table 2. B29K2031/04 → Use of polyvinylesters or derivatives thereof as molding material … → Polymers of vinyl acetate, e.g. PVAc, i.e. polyvinyl acetate … B29L2031/7782 → Other particular articles → Windows (profiled elements for making window frames B29L2031/005, windscreens B29L2031/3052) → Glazing B29K2709/08 → Use of inorganic materials not provided for in groups B29K2603/00 - B29K2607/00, for preformed parts, e.g. for inserts … → Glass Y02W30/60 → Technologies for solid waste management … Y02W30/622 … → Separating plastics from other materials Y02W30/625 … →Disintegrating plastics Y02W30/701 … → Recovery of polymers other than plastics or rubbers → without chemical reactions.

Table 2 lists the most frequently used IPC/CPC codes as well as the corresponding technology issues defined accordingly to the classifica­ tion search tool available on the Espacenet website. Raw data can be downloaded from Patstat online in MS Excel format where the listed records provide, among other information, the docdb_family_id codes and the IPC/CPC classification codes associated to each patent family member. Values expressed as percentage in Table 2 refer to the fre­ quency of a given classification code which has been assigned to a specific fraction of the pool made including the documents representa­ tive of each patent family. In other words, for each classification code (IPC is considered in the formula below, same criteria can be used for CPC) the frequency can be determined as: P j familyj;IPCi IPCi freq: ¼ Pn P i¼1 j familyj;IPCi

j. The applicability of the formula implies that duplicated data, i.e. the duplicated combinations of docdb_family_id and IPCi classification codes have been preliminarily eliminated, such selection being feasible in Excel. It can be concluded that among 946 patent families, originating from 1125 filing events occurred during the last two decades, a not negligible amount of patent families, indicated in Table 2 by numbers included between brackets, deal with recycling methodologies aimed at the sep­ aration of plastic materials. The approach described above is similar to that on which the socalled cross-reference tool available on Patstat online is based, in particular the option that allows to display the trend over time of the frequencies of the Top 20 IPC/CPC classification codes. However, the information arguable using the latter approach is not sufficiently detailed for our purpose because the classification codes are detailed at the subclass, thus not providing information about the main group or the subgroups. In any case the trend arguable from Table 2 is consistent since the predominant subclasses among IPC codes are B09B and B29B (see Fig. 7, left panel), while the subclasses Y02W and B09B predomi­ nate over the rest of the CPC classification codes (Fig. 7, right panel). Such cross-reference analysis can be replicated by means of the SQL script provided in the [11] manuscript to be run in Patstat for ranking the CPC assignment to patent families detailed at the main group clas­ sification level or, if needed, at subgroup level, provided a slight

being each family j corresponding to the docdb_family_id attribute used to univocally distinguish each patent family to whom a specific IPCi has been assigned. Σj indicates the total number of patent families sharing the same specific IPCi classification code. The Σi at the denominator represents the total amount of assigned classification codes, considering the possibility that multiple IPCi classification codes, where i is ranging from 1 to n (n being the total amount of different IPC classification codes retrieved by the query), could be simultaneously assigned to each family 8

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Fig. 10. Mapping of IPC classification codes regarding laminated glass recycling. The distribution of the IPC classification codes of the results of Query “B”(Phase B) has been obtained following the same approach described for the frequency distribution of classification codes listed in Table 2. B29B17/02 → Recovery of plastics or other constituents of waste material containing plastics … → Separating plastics from other materials B29B17/04 → Disintegrating plastics, e.g. by milling.

modification of the query is done.

622, Y02W30/625 and Y02W30/701, referring to the technologies aimed at separating the glass from the plastic material. It is also note­ worthy that other CPC codes aimed at the identification of the type of glass or material used as reinforcement have been quite often assigned by the competent authorities, for example: B29K2031/04, B29L2031/ 7782, B29K2709/08. Fig. 10 illustrates the distribution of IPC classification codes assigned to the patent applications retrieved by means of query “B”. Again, B29B17/02 and B29B17/04, both regarding the removal of plastic ma­ terial, predominate among the IPC codes. The search of CPC classification codes more often assigned to the patent applications revealed the unique presence of the CPC code Y02W30/521 which in fact has been used for selecting the patent doc­ uments by means of the query “B”. Table 3 includes a selection consisting of 20 results. Having elimi­ nated records common to both queries “A” and “B” results, patent doc­ uments describing a methodology including at least a mechanic separation of the laminated glass layers could be isolated. The pool consists of 15 documents out of 22 applications resulting from query “A” and 5 documents out of 10 applications retrieved by means of query “B”. No specific interlayer polymer type has been looked for in the patent database at this stage of the search, though in few cases the issue of recycling of PVB is evident according to the documents’ titles. As indi­ cated in the table, for each result the information available from Patstat has been integrated with the corresponding data available from the Derwent Innovation database [16]. Patent documents in which a purification phase implicating some type of wet treatment is mentioned are listed in Table 3. Such purifi­ cation phase is in general combined with a phase implicating a mechanic separation, the latter treatment being usually performed at the

3.2. Phase B: Laminated glass recycling The patent search has been subsequently focused on technologies relevant for the recycling of the laminated glass, also known as safety glass. According to the scheme illustrated in Table 1, two queries have been used for PATSTAT online interrogation. Both, named “A” and “B” respectively, are aimed at detecting the patent documents specifically concerning the safety glass. Query “A” implicates the presence of spe­ cific keywords (plus synonyms and translations) referring to laminated glass and recycling and a phase of mechanic treatment implicating some kind of separation, for example by means of comminution or crushing, plus the same combination of IPC/CPC classification codes as in Phase A. Query “B” is identical to query “A” as far as the keywords chosen and combined to describe the laminated glass and recycling are concerned. However, the expression of the concept underlying mechanic separation is demanded to the classification code “Y02W30/521” which, according to the Espacenet classification tool, is aimed at the identification of methodologies based on a mechanic treatment of the solid waste, for example by means of crushing or shredding. Fig. 8 shows the distribution of IPC classification codes assigned to the patent applications retrieved by means of query “A”. As expected, there are some peaks corresponding to IPC codes B29B17/02 and B09B3/00. Fig. 9 shows the distribution of the CPC classification codes most frequently assigned to the patent applications resulting from query “A”. Consistently to what is arguable from the IPC codes distribution, there is a remarkable assignment of the CPC code B29B17/02. Among the most frequently assigned CPC codes there are also Y02W30/60, Y02W30/ 9

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Table 3 Lists of patent documents retrieved following Phase B search. Query "A" results appear on top of the table, while Query "B" results appear at the bottom. þ symbol included within brackets refers to the mention of a methodology based on liquid treatment aimed at recycling of the interlayer. Query “A”: Publication nr.

Earliest filing year

DE19811199A1

1998

Applicant/assignee (according to Patstat or Derwent Innovation [16]) Video Computer Recycling

Title (according to Patstat or Derwent Innovation [16])

Liquid based treatment þ

NIPPON SHEET GLASS CO LTD

RECOVERY OF POLYVINYLBUTYRAL FROM SAFETY GLASS AND PROCESS EQUIPMENT INTERLAYER FILM SEPARATION METHOD METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SEPARATING LAMINATED GLASS EQUIPMENT FOR SEPARATING LAMINATED GLASS INTO GLASS FRAGMENT AND INTERMEDIATE FILM FRAGMENT AND RECOVERING THEM METHOD FOR SEPARATING GLASS AND FILM OF LAMINATED GLASS AND METHOD FOR RECYCLING LAMINATED GLASS METHOD FOR SEPARATING AND RECOVERING LAMINATED GLASS THE METHOD TO ISOLATE|SEPARATE A RESIN PART FROM A LAMINATED GLASS METHOD FOR TREATING WASTE LAMINATED GLASS AND METHOD FOR RECYCLING GLASS AND POLYVINYL BUTYRAL RESIN FOR INTERMEDIATE FILM METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SEPARATING SAFETY GLASS OR LAMINATED GLASS INTO GLASS AND FILM TO RECOVER GLASS AND FILM METHOD FOR RE-TREATING INTERMEDIATE FILM AND RE-TREATED PRODUCT PRODUCED BY RE-TREATING METHOD OF THE SAME INTERMEDIATE FILM METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SEPARATING LAMINATED GLASS RECYCLING METHOD FOR DISCARDED FACILITY OF SOLAR POWER GENERATION FOR RECYCLING ALL INDIVIDUAL EQUIPMENTS CRUSHING MACHINE FOR COMMINUTING LAMINATED GLASS A SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RECOVERING OF CULLET FROM REDUNDANT LAMINATED SAFETY GLASS METHOD OF SEPARATING INTERMEDIATE FILM

EP1950019A1 JP(0)4173030B2 JP2002186952A

2005 2003 2000

NIPPON SHEET GLASS CO LTD HONDA MOTOR CO LTD CENTRAL GLASS CO LTD

JP2002248623A

2001

ASAHI GLASS CO LTD

JP2002326848A JP2003160688A

2001 2001

HONDA MOTOR CO LTD DENKI KAGAKU KOGYO KK

JP2003285042A

2002

TSURUOKA KK

JP2004181321A

2002

SHIMOMURA YASUSHI

JP2006298975A

2005

FUJI HEAVY IND LTD

JP2007054785A KR20130060708A

2005 2011

FUJI HEAVY IND LTD YOOSUNG CO LTD

WO2007073738A1 WO2005056192A2

2005 2003

SHARK SOLUTIONS APS ASPELING IVOR VALICE

WO2007088984A1

2006

Applicant/assignee

Title

BE1011256A6

Earliest filing year 1997

DEBAILLEUL GERARD JEAN MARIE

WO2008000273A1

2006

SHARK SOLUTIONS AS

JP2007203594A

2006

FUJI HEAVY IND LTD

WO2008059555A1 US9260582B2

2006 2014

KYORITSU CO LTD CHEN LI YUN

LAMINATED GLASS TREATMENT FOR RECOVERY AND RECYCLING OF ITS CONSTITUENTS INVOLVES FRAGMENTATION, TREATMENT WITH BASIC SOLUTION, SEPARATION OF BASIC SOLUTION, DISINTEGRATED GLASS AND NON-GLASS FRAGMENTS, AND NEUTRALISATION METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SEPARATING GLASS AND PLASTIC FOILS IN LAMINATED GLASS METHOD FOR REPROCESSING GLASS INTERLAYER FILM AND ELASTIC SHEET PREPARED BY THE REPROCESSING METHOD APPARATUS FOR SEPARATING LAMINATED GLASS METHOD OF PRODUCING POLY(VINYL BUTYRAL

Liquid based treatment þ

þ þ þ

þ þ

þ

þ

Query “B”: Publication nr.

beginning of the glass recycling procedure. According to the article of Tupy et al. [17] (see also Phase C1, NPL analysis), similar kind of chemical-physical treatment should follow the mechanic fragmentation of the laminated glass in order to optimize the purification extent of the recycled PVB to be again incorporated within new laminated glass. Normally PVB fragments obtained from laminated glass crushing cannot be reprocessed to produce a new PVB sheet suitable for glass lamination due to the presence of a significant fraction of contaminants, like for example glass scraps and water present in the PVB sheet. Re-use of the interlayers for the same application is therefore not practical because of the loss of some important characteristics, eg. the optical transparency, after the first life cycle, although such polymer may be re-used for other purpose [18]. In the article published in 2014 [17], Tupy and collabo­ rators have referred to a maximum of 300 ppm of contaminants as upper limit, below which the recycled PVB film is compatible with its rein­ corporation in new laminated glass. Remaining below such limit im­ plicates a treatment of the cracked laminated glass with a mild basic solution. Raising the temperature of the solution may further implement the recycling efficiency. Although a treatment based on wet phase, either consisting of water or some kind of organic solvent, is mentioned in several of the patent documents listed in Table 3, the principle described by Debailleul in his patent document, BE1011256A6 [19] being the priority year of such patent application 1997, appears signif­ icantly similar to the approach described several years later by Tupy. Indeed, both methodologies are aimed at an eco-friendly optimized separation of fragmented laminated glass from the interlayer PVB by

þ þ

means of a sodium hydroxide solution, to be used after the mechanic separation stage. Moreover, in both cases the same alkali solution can be used for performing several subsequent cycles of delamination. Among patent documents included in Table 3, the European application filed in 2005 (Publ. nr. EP1950019A1 [20]) deserves consideration too, given that the treatment with alkaline solution is an option mentioned also in this patent document. 3.3. Phase C1: Pvb recycling from Laminated glass Prompted by the finding that at least one patent document might have anticipated a methodology in principle suitable for recycling the PVB, so that it could be again used as interlayer in the laminated glass, the subsequent analysis by means of Patstat online has been particularly focused on methodologies regarding the PVB interlayer recycling. To such aim, SQL query C1 has been used. According to Table 1, such query is similar to query “A” (Phase B) as far as the combination of keywords aimed at isolating patent documents specifically dealing with laminated glass and recycling are concerned. The mention of PVB in title/abstract is also considered mandatory, while the presence of a mechanical treatment has been left optional (this part appears joined with OR operator in the query) in order to avoid too much stringency. Not surprisingly, fewer results are found as our patents’ selection proceeds. 18 patent applications could be retrieved by means of query C1. Fig. 11 illustrates the distribution of IPC classification codes assigned 10

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World Patent Information 59 (2019) 101932

Fig. 11. Mapping of the IPC classification codes regarding PVB interlayer recycling. The distribution of the IPC classification codes of the results of Query C1 has been obtained following the same approach described for the frequency distribution of classification codes listed in Table 2.

substances, however it’s important to remind that the latter kind of re­ agents may imply disadvantageous consequences for the environment, thus impairing the appeal of such documents.

to the patent applications. The distribution appears rather uniform, suggesting that no classification code is aimed at the precise identifi­ cation of the PVB used as interlayer material, although several codes may rather concern the disintegration or the recycling of plastic mate­ rials in general. Even if the query used for this search were modified to get a variant where the subclass B29K were included as search option in addition to the IPC or CPC classification codes already present in the query (see Table 1), so that in principle additional patent documents, for example those regarding poly-vinyl-esters used as molding materials could be retrieved, it has been ascertained that such variant would leave the number of results unchanged. We therefore assume that the presence of synonyms or translations of certain keywords could appropriately compensate for the missing of classification codes that, if available, could serve to precisely identify a specific kind of interlayer material. A similar trend can be envisaged when examining the distribution of the CPC classification codes (Fig. 12). Table 4 includes the retrieved patent documents, the majority of cases concerning the recycling of the laminated glass and also mentioning the word PVB in the title in almost all cases. Those already retrieved from the preceding phase B search have been neglected, so that only 12 patent families remained to be analyzed. Not surprisingly EP2308919B1, being the equivalent version of the PCT application WO2009118426A1 filed by Lurederra, as already mentioned in the Introduction, could be retrieved among these results. Instead, neither the application BE1011256A6 or its equivalent versions, nor EP1950019A1, did appear simply because specific keywords, in partic­ ular those crucial for the identification of the PVB, are not included in their title/abstract. Some documents listed in Table 4 may mention a wet phase based on the use of water or some other kind of solvent, for example organic

3.4. Phase C1: Npl results A deeper investigation regarding the divulgation from academic players may be performed not only by considering the patent documents but also by looking through the NPL. The bottom panel of Fig. 13 demonstrates some cooperation between certain academic players. Moreover, researchers of the Institute for Advanced Engineering have not only published on journals but also filed patent applications during the last decade, being the name of such institution present also in the top panel of Fig. 13. Table 5 lists the articles found according to the analysis described in the legend of Fig. 13 and includes the publication of Tupy and collab­ orators [17], already mentioned as far as the mechano-chemical sepa­ ration is concerned: 3.5. Phase C2: Recycling of other interlayer materials The query of the preceding phase B has been modified in order to focus on recycling of interlayers of laminated glass incorporating EVA or TPU instead of PVB, all the remaining features described referring to query “C1” being unchanged. As far as EVA is concerned, 20 applications corresponding to 19 patent families could be retrieved and have been listed as in Table 6. Solar cells or batteries appear cited in the majority of the documents’ titles because EVA is rather incorporated as an interlayer material in the domain of solar industry than in windscreens [6] and this finding 11

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World Patent Information 59 (2019) 101932

Fig. 12. Mapping of the CPC classification codes regarding PVB interlayer recycling. The distribution of the CPC classification codes of the results of Query C1 has been obtained following the same approach described for the frequency distribution of classification codes listed in Table 2. Table 4 Data obtained following Phase C1 search of patent documents specifically addressing the PVB recycling. Publication nr. KR20040057054A

Application authority KR

Earliest filing year 2002

Applicant/assignee (according to Patstat or Derwent Innovation [16]) Park Dong Jo

EP2308919B1

EP

2008

KR20160099306A CN101719529B

KR CN

2015 2009

KR20140077505A

KR

2012

(L)UREDERRA FUNDACION PARA EL DESARROLLO TECNOLOGICO Y SOCIAL L INST ADVANCED ENGINEERING GUANGDONG GOLDEN GLASS TECHNOL TAEGWANG STEEL CO LTD

KR101574470B1 TW201508016A

KR TW

2015 2013

YOONGWON CO LTD SHAO SHU HUI CHEN LI YUN

CN105802097A

CN

2016

WO2016129734A1

KR

2015

SHANTOU BLIGH QUALCOMM BEAUTY IND CO LTD INST FOR ADVANCED ENG

KR101584677B1

KR

2014

KR20140122452A

KR

2013

HYUNDAI ENG & CONSTRUCT CO LTD EUGENE CO LTD TAEGWANG STEEL CO. LTD.

JP2005193443A

JP

2004

FUJI HEAVY IND LTD

12

Title (according to Patstat or Derwent Innovation [16]) COMPOUND MATERIALS AND WATERPROOF SHEETS USING ADHESIVE FILM SCRAPS FOR PRODUCTION OF SAFETY GLASS AND PRODUCTION METHOD THEREOF POLYVINYL BUTYRAL RECYCLING METHOD RECYCLING METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PVB METHOD FOR RECOVERING CRYSTALLINE SILICON CELL PLATE IN DOUBLE-GLASS SOLAR CELL ASSEMBLY WITH PVB INTERBED RECYCLING METHOD OF PVB FILM AND HOT-MELT USING RECYCLED PVB FILM THEREBY OMITTED METHOD OF UTILIZING WASTE GLASS TO PREPARE LAMELLAR STRUCTURE OF POLYVINYL BUTYRAL METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING PVB FILM BY RECYCLING WASTE PVB MATERIAL PVB RECYCLING APPARATUS USING PHYSICAL SEPARATION METHOD ASPHALT COMPOSITIONS USING WASTE PVB FILM AND MANUFACTURING METHOD OF THE SAME METHOD OF PVB EXTRACTION FROM TEMPERED GLASS EMBEDDED IN CAR OR CONSTRUCTION AND RECYCLING METHOD OF THE TEMPERED GLASS MOLDING METHOD OF POLYVINYL BUTYRAL RESIN, TREATMENT METHOD OF POLYVINYL BUTYRAL RESIN AND LAMINATED GLASS RECYCLING METHOD

Wet phase

þ

þ þ þ þ þ þ þ

þ

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World Patent Information 59 (2019) 101932

Fig. 13. Mapping of players according to patent and NPL data regarding the PVB interlayer recycling. Data obtained upon consulting, the TIM database as of Febr. 2018. Results have been filtered in order to select “PATENT” (top diagram) or “ARTICLE” (bottom diagram). The query used is the following: topic: ((“recycl* PVB"~5 OR “recov* PVB"~5 OR “recycl* Polyvinylbutyral"~5 OR “recov* Polyvinylbutyral"~5 OR “separat* PVB"~5 OR “separat* Polyvinylbutyral"~5) AND (“laminate* glass"~2 OR “safety glass"~2 OR “tempered glass"~2 OR windscreen OR windshield OR glass)) ANDemm_year:[2008 TO 2018]. 5 pat­ ent documents and 8 articles were retrieved. Patent applications filed by individuals are not shown.

confirms that the specificity of our search is largely dependent on the use of keywords identifying the plastic material rather than relying on the assignment of specific classification codes. As detailed in several patent documents, the claimed methodologies are suitable for the separation of a layer of EVA adhering to the glass of solar cells and recycling of EVA or its conversion into some other chemical compound. Fig. 14 illustrates the distribution of the IPC classification codes, with a prevalence of B09B3/00 and B09B5/00 over the other ones. Fig. 15 illustrates the distribution of the CPC classification codes. In this case there is a prevalence of Y02W30/20 and Y02W30/827. As observed in the case of the PVB recycling, classification codes specif­ ically referable to the use of EVA do not emerge. As far as the recycling of TPU from laminated glass is concerned, two patent applications could be identified, namely KR101208333B1 and KR20020086327A, by means of Query C2”. However, neither document seems particularly relevant.

i) If our patent search were essentially aimed at the retrieval of relevant documents in order to assess for patentability requirements of a new product or methodology, some issues intrinsic to the patent intel­ ligence strategy would deserve attention as far as the coverage of the dataset is concerned. At least two important caveats should be consid­ ered. One depends on the fact that Patstat content is upgraded only twice per year, while the other depends on the scarcity of options as far as textbased search is concerned. Proximity operators are available since few months and full text search is limited because patent description and claims cannot be thoroughly investigated. Following Phase B and Phase C1 searches, it may be concluded that the alkaline treatment of PVB containing laminated glass is mentioned in a quite small percentage of patent documents. Orbit, a commercial patent database that is appro­ priate for prior-art search and advantageously allows to select keywords included in title, abstract, description and claims, either considered separately or in combination, has been used in order to verify whether further relevant documents could be extracted, although it has to be considered that the intelligence analysis described in the paragraphs 3.1 to 3.5 of Results was done about one year earlier, therefore some ap­ plications, especially those most recently filed to any patent authority, could be missing. As explained in the methodology, two queries have been used as input for Orbit. The former was aimed at selecting patent documents concerning the glass recycling by means of an alkaline so­ lution, without imposing further restrictions regarding specific

3.6. Quality of glass recycling analysis: Remarkable considerations The quality of data emerging from landscape analysis deserves some consideration, in particular regarding: i) the coverage of the dataset, ii) the unique options provided by landscape analysis compared to prior-art search, and iii) the reproducibility of the results. 13

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World Patent Information 59 (2019) 101932

means of an alkaline solution. As expected, the prior-art analysis pro­ vides few more results in comparison to the patent intelligence research, however in each type of analysis relevant hits may be missing, so a mutual exchange of technical detail appears helpful for inspiring re­ finements of both prior-art and patent intelligence queries, assuming that the aim is that of maximizing the respective datasets coverage. Another option aimed at enriching the pool of relevant data could rely on the search of patents citations. This option concerns not only the databases suitable to prior-art analysis but is applicable to Patstat as well. An example of SQL based query, aimed at performing forward ci­ tations search, is provided among the information included in Ref. [11]. Search of patent applications citing BE1011256A6 would produce a dataset not only including the documents citing that specific applica­ tion, but also subsequent patent applications citing any of the equivalent member documents included in the BE1011256A6 patent family. If the same goal were to be achieved using for example Espacenet, then separate sessions of search should be considered for each of the family member documents, being a similar task demanding in case many family member documents would exist. One relevant forward citation of BE1011256A6 corresponds to the PCT application WO2005056192A2, not retrieved among the ten documents pooled by means of Orbit, as explained above. The technique claimed in this PCT document seems rather relevant, since it is stated that the mechanical and chemical treatment with alkaline solution facilitate the detachment of each of the two glass layers adhering to the PVB interlayer, leaving such interlayer substantially unbroken. Such aspect appears as an advantage in view of the possibility of including the recycled PVB into new laminated glass. An additional implementation could concern the use of an alterna­ tive SQL syntax to modulate the amount of search results without changing the choice of keywords and classification codes as well as their combination with boolean operators. Several variants are conceivable for Phase A query, based on the replacement of the “JOIN” clause. In Ref. [11] three variants are included. The purpose is to gradually implement the original pool of results, first including those Patstat re­ cords where the IPC or the CPC classification codes may be missing and then considering also those records where the title or the abstract may be missing. The latter situation may occur in case of patent documents for whom a translation in English of the title/abstract may be not available. Such modification allows to maximize the dataset dimension, although the risk of contaminating truly relevant data with “noise” might increase as well. Fig. 16 shows the potential improvement assessed through measuring the number of non-duplicated values of ‘appln_id’ codes. Each of the three tested variants significantly increases the number of results in comparison to the original Phase A query. ii) Another opportunity provided by patent landscape analysis con­ cerns the fact that data can be pooled according to user’s defined criteria. Several examples of SQL based queries are provided in recent articles [22,23]. Pooling of patent data can be tailored for taking informed decision, no matter how deep the knowledge of a stakeholder may be regarding the patent bibliographic information or the patent legal status. For example, an investor could quite simply evaluate a patent port­ folio concerning glass recycling just checking the expiration dates and the number of annual fees paid and thus get some hints about the as­ signees’ strategy. Provided no interruption in fee payment occurred, the user could argue how relevant each assignee considers the legal pro­ tection of his know-how, thus being possible to roughly evaluate the importance of technical content of a given patent document even in case the protection already expired, as in case of applications filed more than twenty years ago. To retrieve such kind of information a more limited pool of patent documents concerning glass recycling has been selected by means of a SQL query similar to that used for Phase A search, as explained in Ref. [11]. Table 7 includes the first twenty rows obtained upon Pastat online (ed. Spring 2019) interrogation, evidencing that one patent (EP1268073B1) concerning a machine for crushing glass may be still in

Table 5 Data obtained following Phase C1 search of articles specifically addressing the PVB recycling. Type

Year

Authors

Organizations

Title

Article

2008

Valera T.S., Demarquette N. R.

University of S~ ao Paulo

Article

1998

Cha Y.-J., Lee C.H., Choe S.

Inha University

Article

2002

Dhaliwal A.K., Hay J.N.

University of Birmingham

Article

2006

Sita C., Burns M., Focke W⋅W., Hassler R.

Article

2014

Tupy M., Mokrejs P., Merinska D., Svoboda P., Zvonicek J.

Article

2015

Swain B., Ryang Park J., Yoon Shin D., Park K.S., Hwan Hong M., Gi Lee C.

University of Pretoria, Leibniz-Institute of Polymer Research Brno University of Technology, Tomas Bata University in Zlin Institute for Advanced Engineering (IAE)

Polymer toughening using residue of recycled windshields: pvb film as impact modifier Morphology and mechanical properties of nylon 6 toughened with waste poly(vinyl butyral) film The characterization of polyvinyl butyral by thermal analysis Tensile properties of thermoplastic starchpvb blends

Article

2013

Bendaoud A., Carrot C., Charbonnier J., Pillon C.

Article

2015

Obuchi K., Sato Y., Osaki Y., Karikomi M., Kimura T.

Universit� e de Lyon, CNRS, Universit� e de SaintEtienneSaintEtienne Utsunomiya University

Windshield recycling focused on effective separation of pvb sheet Recycling of waste automotive laminated glass and valorization of polyvinyl butyral through mechanochemical separation Blends of plasticized polyvinyl butyral and polyvinyl chloride: morphology analysis in view of recycling Preparation of highly swellable organogel using waste windshield polyvinyl butyral interlayer

classification codes or for defining the type of interlayer material or for specifying filing date intervals. 46 records were obtained. Another in­ dependent search has been performed in order to isolate patent docu­ ments just concerning the PVB, regardless from the technical context in which such compound is mentioned, and in such instance more than 36 thousand records can be retrieved in Orbit. The algebraic intersection of the two documents’ pools led to just 10 patent documents, three of whom are rather focusing on EVA recycling from solar cells (JP6154924B1, JP2014104406A, JP2017140618A), whereas one addi­ tional patent application (EP2432636A1) is rather focusing on the fabrication of fire-resistant laminated glass, not significantly on its recycling. Considering the six remaining results, Nippon Sheet is assignee of three patent documents, one of which, the EP1950019A1, as well as the other family member JPWO2007032501A1, has been also extracted from Patstat, the other two being EP1834711A1 and JP2008168271A, respectively. Another document, resulting from both Orbit and Pastat searches, is the known EP2308919B1 patent of (L) Urederra. Instead, the EP3418328A1 application, recently filed by Shark Solutions [21], did not emerge from Patstat queries, although the cor­ responding record is present in Patstat online (appln_id ¼ 480272872). Quite surprisingly, the above described prior-art search performed with Orbit did not reveal the BE1011256A6 document emerged instead upon Patstat analysis (Phase B). It has been verified that this document is truly present in the Orbit data collection. Altogether, such findings support the hypothesis that a relatively low number of patent documents deal with PVB separation upon peculiar treatment of the laminated glass by 14

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World Patent Information 59 (2019) 101932

Table 6 Data obtained following Phase C2 search of patent data, namely the retrieval of documents mentioning the EVA recycling and obtained by means of Query C2’. PUBLICATION NR.

APPLICATION AUTHORITY

EARLIEST FILING YEAR

APPLICANT/ASSIGNEE (according to Patstat or Derwent Innovation)

TITLE (according to Patstat or Derwent Innovation [16])

KR101714496B1 KR20010074041A

KR KR

2014 2001

KIM, JAE IL PARK, SEUNG BUM

KR20030075044A

KR

2002

OH, DAE MIN

KR100988287B1

KR

2010

LEE, HO KOOK

KR20130080950A CN103979893B

KR CN

2012 2014

KIM, DAE SUNG LI HAOXIN

JP2004042033A

JP

2002

KANESHIRO TSUNEO

CN103866129A

CN

2014

JP2014108375A

JP

2012

INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES SHINRYO CORP

METHOD FOR RECYCLING SILICON FROM WASTE SOLAR MODULE MANUFACTURING METHODS OF CONCRETE INTERLOCKING BLOCK AND PERMEABLE CONCRETE INTERLOCKING BLOCK FOR ROADWAY AND SIDEWALK USING CRUSHED AGGREGATES FROM WASTE GLASSES AND BLAST FURNACE CEMENT. THE MANUFACTURING METHOD OF CONSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS EFFECTING BOTH ADIABATIC AND IMPACT SOUND INSULATION THROUGH FLOOR IN APARTMENT HOUSES ORGANIC-INORGANIC COMPOSITE MORTOR USING ABOLITION GLASS POWDER AND FLOOR CONSTRUCTION METHOD USING THE ORGANICINORGANIC COMPOSITE MORTOR METHOD FOR DISMANTLING ECO-FRIENDLY WASTE SOLAR MODULE FLAME-RETARDANT THERMAL INSULATION MORTAR DOPED WITH COB CORES AND PREPARATION METHOD THEREOF METHOD OF RECOVERING SILICON WAFER AND TEMPERED GLASS FROM SOLAR BATTERY MODULE RECYCLING METHOD OF CDTE SOLAR CELL MODULE

JP2015217372A KR20110031688A

JP KR

2014 2009

NISHIMURA TETSUO KANG, SUK MIN

CN103978010A

CN

2014

DONG LI

JP2016190177A

JP

2015

MIZUGUCHI HITOSHI

JP2012019134A

JP

2010

ISHIGURO TAKIO

KR20120000148A

KR

2010

JP2015229126A KR20120041290A WO2017113755A1

JP KR CN

2014 2010 2015

CN104724983A

CN

2015

KOREA RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY FUKAMI TAKUO RYU, HO JIN COREHELM ELECTRONIC MATERIALS CO., LTD ANHUI XINRUN NEW MATERIALS CO., LTD.

force, not only because the expiration date has not yet been reached but also because annual fees have been paid for at least eighteen years. Indeed, upon consultation of the more updated legal status information available from Espacenet, it turns out that annual fees have been paid to several national offices for nineteen years. On the other hand, R&D staff members could be interested in monitoring the frequency of assignment of IPC or CPC classification codes, in order to discover in due advance innovative features regarding methodologies or new equipment aimed at glass recycling. Moreover, such monitoring could rather concern the frequency of concurrent classification codes in each patent family. Indeed, unexpected combi­ nations of classification codes may facilitate the retrieval and the quantification of patent applications where innovative feature could originate from the contribution of different pre-existing technologies. Such proxy is usually referred to as co-occurrence, which may be used not only in order to highlight the combinations of classification codes, but also to detect ongoing partnership among co-assignees, that other­ wise could be considered as competitors acting in the same technology field. Table 8 includes the top 20 results obtained from Pastat online (ed. Spring 2019) interrogation, as explained in Ref. [11]. As expected, the classification codes chosen for our investigation are among the most frequently used. Other classification codes, for example C04B18, may be relatively frequent, indicating R&D ongoing activities based on recy­ cling of waste materials, for example for producing concrete. Even though several providers of tools dedicated to prior-art have improved the way of displaying the results, for example through inter­ active charts, the high number of options available to customize the SQL

METHOD OF RECOVERING CONSTITUENT MATERIAL OF SOLAR CELL ELEMENT REGENERATION METHOD OF SOLAR BATTERY PANEL THE SOLAR CELL RECYCLING METHODE FROM THE WASTE SOLAR MODULE EVA HEAT TREATMENT METHOD OF WASTE CRYSTALLINE SILICON SOLAR CELL MODULE METHOD FOR RECOVERING VALUABLE MATERIAL FROM SOLAR BATTERY PANEL AND PROCESSING DEVICE FOR RECOVERING THE SAME RECOVERY METHOD FOR REUSE OF SOLAR BATTERY MODULE MATERIAL METHOD FOR RECYCLING SILICON FROM WASTE SOLAR MODULE RECYCLING METHOD OF SOLAR BATTERY PANEL METHOD FOR RECYCLING SILICON FROM WASTE SOLAR MODULE METHOD FOR RECYCLING CRYSTALLINE SILICON SOLAR CELL ASSEMBLIES THERMAL-INSULATION AND TOUGHENED BURN-FREE COLLIERY WASTES BRICK AND PREPARATION METHOD THEREOF

queries can be helpful to gather information otherwise not immediately available. Moreover, since Patstat datasets are downloadable as MS Excel files, the further reorganization of Excel fields in Power BI files [24] permits as well to display data allowing the user to select the required information directly from the charts. The articles [22,23] provide additional examples concerning the analysis of legal status and procedural data, yet it must be reminded that in such case the coverage may be impaired because of the limitations typical of EPRegister [25]. As consequence, the availability of legal information from Patstat EPRegister depends on the inclusion of at least one European application within the patent family. iii) As far as the data reproducibility is concerned, each new release of Patstat implicates the implementation rather than the replacement of the datasets. Both Espacenet and Patstat are fed with EPO DocDB data, although the upgrading occurs only twice per year in the latter case. Such situation, though limiting to some extent, should not implicate the loss of relevant information. Two editions of Patstat online, namely the Autumn 2017, used for performing the search phases from A to C200 as explained in the previous paragraphs, and the Spring 2019, respectively, were confronted in order to measure the difference between amounts of non-duplicated patent applications measured counting the correspond­ ing ‘appln_id’ index in each case. To such aim, search phases from A to C1 have been replicated using the 2019 Spring edition. Fig. 17 shows the difference of ‘appln_id’ amounts considering earliest filing years included between 1997 and 2017. After 2015, a substantial increment consisting of 159 applications can be noticed, corresponding to an increase of about 16% considering the total amount of applications (1125, as from Autumn 2017 version of Patstat). Such 15

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World Patent Information 59 (2019) 101932

Fig. 14. Mapping of the IPC classification codes regarding the EVA interlayer recycling. The distribution of the IPC classification codes of the results of Query C20 has been obtained following the same approach described for the frequency distribution of classification codes listed in Table 2.

significant increment seems essentially due to the delayed publication of patent applications, typically after 18 months passed since the priority date. Instead, prior to 2015 the difference is on average negligible, with occasional loss of records, whether due to withdrawal of applications or fixing wrong information is a question deserving further investigation. Subsequently, potential difference in the number of applications regarding Phase B (query A) has been assessed. However, in such case, the increment concerns just one application (applicatio­ n_id ¼ 494111058) filed during 2016. A similar assessment has been done considering Phase B (query B). In this case essentially 5 additional applications filed in 1997 are revealed using the Spring 2019 edition, being those documents equivalent versions of BE1011256A6 filed to different authorities. Two additional filing events occurred, during 2003 and during 2016, respectively. The former corresponds to the PCT application WO2005056192A2, previously retrieved as forward citation of BE1011256A6. The same test has been eventually performed on the Phase C data, in particular using the query C1 aimed at focusing on techniques aimed at PVB recycling from laminated glass. Fig. 18 shows few additional cases of filing events emerged upon consultation of Pat­ stat Spring 2019 edition. During 2016 an application has been filed to KIPO, the corresponding publication number being KR101742493B1. Such patent, not emerged by means of the prior-art assessment per­ formed with Orbit as explained in (i), is relevant as far as the use of a basic solution is claimed in view of eco-friendly recycling of tempered glass present in automobiles, in particular as far as the recycling of PVB is concerned. Therefore, excluding the consistent increment of records characterizing the most recent years of Phase A data, in all subsequent search phases the inclusion of few more documents could be noticed, so that the replicability of the search using subsequent releases of Patstat appears substantially unaffected. In conclusion, the contribution of the patent intelligence search

deserves consideration if the aim is to accompany a sufficiently exhaustive prior-art search with information useful for the contextual­ ization of more specific items, like the alkaline treatment of laminated glass, within the more general topic concerning glass recycling. Despite two rounds of patent intelligence search, it seems that a ramp up of patent applications describing methodologies aimed at PVB recycling from laminated glass is barely detectable for the moment, even if tech­ nological improvements may be acknowledged as a priority all over the world. 4. Discussion Usually patent prior-art search implicates a strategy which is rather different from that used for the present investigation. In the former situation the need is essentially that of detecting in due advance antic­ ipatory aspects that might be critical as far as the compliance with the patentability requirements is concerned. In such instance the aim is that of focusing on technical detail although the risk intrinsic to such strategy is that of missing one or more prior documents which may be relevant as far as specific technical issues are concerned. On the other hand, a search strategy aimed at defining technology scenarios implicates a broader yet less specific search, producing different types of information aimed at arguing meaningful conclusions beneficial to several stakeholders, as informed decisions crucially affect the activities of each one. Consid­ ering such widely recognised needs, the engagement of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), leading the Pat­ ent Statistics Task Force, members of which are the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), the European Patent Office (EPO), the Japanese Patent Office (JPO), the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the US National Science Foundation (NSF), and the European Commission (EC) was 16

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World Patent Information 59 (2019) 101932

Fig. 15. Mapping of the CPC classification codes regarding the EVA interlayer recycling. The distribution of the CPC classification codes of the results of Query C20 has been obtained following the same approach described for the frequency distribution of classification codes listed in Table 2. Y02W30/827 →Technologies for solid waste management → Recycling of waste of electrical or electronic equipment [WEEE] → Technologies specific to particular WEEE categories → Consumers equipment or photovoltaic panels. Fig. 16. Comparison of performance of Phase A query and its three variants. Phase A query was used in order to interrogate Patstat online (version Spring 2019), so that 1304 records identified considering the non-duplicated ‘appln_id’ values are distributed in the timeframe 1997–2017 refer­ ring to the earliest filing years. Variant # 1 is based on identical keywords and classification codes as in original Phase A query. Search of classification codes has been implemented in order to include records potentially devoid of IPC or of CPC classi­ fication codes. As consequence, a total amount consisting of 1776 records could be retrieved. Variant # 2 is similar to Phase A query, except that “JOIN” clause, used to link the IPC and the CPC tables, is now replaced by “LEFT JOIN” clause, also aimed at including records potentially devoid of IPC or of CPC classification codes. 1800 records have been retrieved. Variant # 3 is similar to Variant # 2, except that the “LEFT JOIN” clause has been used not only for joining the two PASTAT tables listing the IPC and CPC classification codes, respectively, but also for joining the two PATSTAT tables referring to titles and abstracts, respectively, in order to consider potential cases in which no information is available regarding these attributes. Following this implementation, 1804 records have been retrieved.

aimed at inducing the creation of Patstat [26]. The methodology aimed at our intelligence analysis seems promising as basis for monitoring of R&D activities showing relevant margin of implementation as far as the recycling of the laminated glass is con­ cerned, being especially the recycling of the interlayer plastic material a crucial issue. Future assessments should reveal whether the potential of

a technology, quite well documented even though apparently not yet assimilated by relevant players active in the field of glass recycling, will become a consolidated standard and likely developed further. Considering the presence of laminated glass in a typical European car, such kind of vehicle contains 41 kg of glass, representing 3.2% of the dismantled ELV body, a fraction which is continually increasing for new 17

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World Patent Information 59 (2019) 101932

Table 7 Schematic view of fee renewals and expiry data of a sample of granted patents obtained by means of Patstat online (Spring 2019), according to a strategy similar to Phase A search. fee_renewal_year

EXPIRY

Publication nr.

psn_name (applicant)

20

02/02/ 2015 02/02/ 2015 23/02/ 2009 19/05/ 2013 07/08/ 2011 07/08/ 2011 23/03/ 2015 02/02/ 2015 24/05/ 2013 24/05/ 2013 05/07/ 2011 01/12/ 2018 01/12/ 2018

EP0807154 EP0807154

BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE COHN, DANIEL, R.

EP0389314

ISOVER SAINT-GOBAIN

EP0625869 EP0598069

JOHNS MANVILLE INTERNATIONAL LITOVITZ, THEODORE AARON

EP0598069

MACEDO; PEDRO B.

EP0817685

MRT SYSTEM

EP0807154

TITUS, CHARLES H.

EP0626349

TSUKISHIMA KIKAI COMPANY

EP0626349

YAMAURA TAKESHI

EP0526733

HELLING, WILHELM

EP1137603

EP1268073

KOREA HYDRO & NUCLEAR POWER COMPANY SOCIETE GENERALE POUR LES TECHNIQUES NOUVELLES S.G. N. GLOBAL ENECO

KR100270899

HARIM COMPANY

KR960000559

KIM, JUNG SUK

KR960000559

YUN, SANG KOOK

EP0525226

ED. ZUEBLIN

JPH08225635

MIYASOU CHEM

20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 19 19 19 18 18 18 18 17 16

22/03/ 2020 06/03/ 2018 10/02/ 2013 10/02/ 2013 25/07/ 2011 21/06/ 2014

EP1137603

Fig. 17. Upgrading of Phase A results. While data of Fig. 2 were obtained upon interrogation of Patstat online ed. Autumn 2017, the same query has been subsequently used to repeat the analysis using Patstat online ed. Spring 2019. In each case, non-duplicated ‘appln_id’ amounts have been partitioned considering the timeframe displayed on the horizontal axis. The difference of ‘appln_id’ amounts corresponding to each value of earliest filing year has been calculated and plot as ‘Delta 2017_19’, in order to easily evaluating the replicability of the results.

cars [2]. Faced with the situation of an increasing stockpile of waste interlayer from recycled glass laminate and no acceptable disposal op­ tion other than incineration with energy recovery, corporates such as Pilkington have recently taken in consideration the economic case for the development of recyclable interlayers for laminated glass [4]. In that analysis four types of interlayer materials, namely PVB, EVA, Poly­ urethane (PU) and Polyvinylchloride (PVC) have been considered and it emerged that the material cost, particularly of the polymers, is the greatest contributor to the overall economic burden while the costs of energy associated with production are minimal in comparison. PU is by far the most expensive polymer interlayer, whilst PVC is the least expensive. In the same study a comparison of the above cited materials has been also performed upon considering alternative cascades of use of the polymers. Both PVC and EVA were matched for applications such as cable sheathing and other soft coverings, whilst no further use for PU or PVB were found. PVC and EVA both showed a greater potential for recycling and it appears that the cascaded use of these materials could lead to a reduction of both environmental and economic impacts. It resulted from our NPL analysis that a separation stage based on mechano-chemical treatment is crucial for the maintenance of original

Table 8 Ranking of patent families retrieved by means of Patstat online (Spring 2019) and based on the co-occurrence within each patent family of a specific combi­ nation of IPC classification codes (IPC1/IPC2). Number Of Families

IPC1

IPC2

240 51 50 50 48 47 46 36 35 34 32 30 28 28 28 25 24 21 21

B09B 5 C04B 18 B29B 17 C04B 38 C22B 7 B29B 17 B02C 13 C03B 19 G02F 1 C08J 11 B29B 17 C03C 1 C08J 11 C04B 35 C04B 28 C22B 7 C01B 33 B09B 3 B02C 23

B09B 3 B09B 3 B09B 3 B09B 3 B09B 3 B29B 17 B02C 13 B09B 3 B09B 3 B29B 17 B09B 5 B09B 3 B09B 3 B09B 3 B09B 3 B09B 5 B09B 3 B07B 1 B02C 13

Fig. 18. Upgrading of Phase C1 results. While data summarised in Table 4 were obtained upon interrogation of Patstat online ed. Autumn 2017, the same query has been subsequently used to repeat the analysis using Patstat online ed. Spring 2019. In each case, non-duplicated ‘appln_id’ amounts have been par­ titioned considering the timeframe on horizontal axis. Then the difference of ‘appln_id’ amounts has been calculated and plot as ‘Delta 2017_19’, in order to easily evaluate the replicability of the search criteria. 18

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World Patent Information 59 (2019) 101932

properties of the recycled PVB. Consistently, in the description of the European patent of Lurederra it’s clearly stated that a supplementary treatment performed by means of a basic solution is required in order to assure that the recycled PVB possesses the structure and properties inherent to pure PVB. Having retrieved several patent documents focusing on techniques aimed at the same objective, we have realized that, although still not in many cases, the least recent likely corre­ sponding to the patent document BE1011256A6, the concept described appears analogous to that claimed subsequently by Lurederra, and also to that divulgated several years later in the article of Tupy. Meanwhile, additional recycling methodologies have been set up in order to recover the PVB from the laminated glass and a relatively low number of patent applications have been filed. Excluding Lurederra, plants aimed at PVB recycling have been settled in Europe and in USA by the Danish com­ pany Shark Solutions [27], a player detected by our patent search. The least recent patent international applications of such player (WO2007073738A1 and WO2008000273A1) are focused on mechani­ cal treatment aimed at PVB recycling in form of pellet, so the recycled material seemed not suitable for the production of laminated glass. However, the recently filed EP3418328A1 application, currently under examination according to EP Register, describes a methodology based on a washing step using alkaline solutions, so that in principle the recovered PVB may be reincorporated in new laminated glass. Given the relatively small number of NPL publications that specif­ ically concern the separation of glass and PVB from waste automotive glass [28], it is plausible that at the moment few turn-key solutions aimed at the PVB purification to an adequate extent are available, so that the recycled polymer quality may be seldom compatible with the windscreens production. As of January 2018, a partnering opportunity request supported by the EU funded initiative Enterprise Europe Network has been published on the web, being requested a technical know-how regarding the production of laminated glass based on recy­ cled PVB [29]. Excluding the demonstrative plant of Lurederra [3], a brief search made surfing the Internet has led to the discovery of the tradename Butacite G [30], which identifies a film commercialized by Kuraray. The film consists of 100% recycled PVB and is suitable for producing laminated glass. The tradename mentioned above is cited in the description of a number of patent documents, however such docu­ ments seem particularly focused on procedures aimed at the production of laminated glass incorporating recycled polymers as interlayers, rather than providing detail about methods aimed at recovering the PVB from dismantled laminated glass.

Periodic monitoring of patents and NPL should progressively reveal the potentialities of laminated glass recycling. Declaration of competing interest None. Acknowledgements The author would like to thank the following patent information experts from EPO for their kind and continuous assistance with the EPO databases consultation, as well as the collection and elaboration of the patent data: Dr. Geert Boedt, Dr. Johannes Schaaf, Dr. Patrick Le Gonidec, Dr. Nigel Clarke. The author would also like to acknowledge the colleague, Dr. Ilaria Gandin, for her assistance provided during the consultation of the TIM database. References [1] O. Alsaed, I.S. Jalham, Polyvinyl butyral (PVB) and Ethyl vinyl acetate (EVA) as a binding material for laminated glass, Jordan, J. Mech. Ind. Eng. 6 (2012) 127–133. [2] R. Farel, B. Yannou, A. Ghaffari, Y. Leroy, A cost and benefit analysis of future endof-life vehicle glazing recycling in France: a systematic approach, Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 74 (2013) 54–65, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2013.02.013. [3] LIFE09 ENV/ES000501 RECYCLED-PVB Design and development of a demonstrative pilot plant for the recycling of polyvinyl butyral (PVB). http://www. recycled-pvb.eu/home.php accessed October 3, 2018. [4] Pilkington, Laminated car windscreen recycling. http://omnigp.com/pilk.pdf. [5] M. Tupý, D. M�e�rínsk� a, V. Ka�sp� arkov� a, PVB sheet recycling and degradation, Mater. Recycl. – Trends Perspect. (2012) 133–150, https://doi.org/10.5772/36838. [6] B. Weller, J. Wünsch, K. H€ arth, Experimental study on different interlayer materials for laminated glass, glas, Process. Days (2005) 120–123. [7] F.A. Claudio, M. Luis, O.A. Edume, M.H. German, F.F.M. Antonia, POLYVINYL BUTYRAL RECYCLING METHOD, WO2009118426A1, 2008. [8] WS-REC - design and construction OF a windscreen recycling line (n.d.), https://ec. europa.eu/environment/eco-innovation/projects/en/projects/ws-rec. [9] Patent Information Services for Experts, https://www.epo.org/search ing-for-patents/business/patstat.html#tab-1 (accessed October 10, 2018). [10] Tools for innovation monitoring. https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/scientific-tool/too ls-innovation-monitoring accessed February 10, 2018. [11] R. Priore, Patent Intelligence Datasets about Plastic Interlayer Recycling from Laminated Glass (Submitted), (Data In Brief). [12] Espacenet website. https://worldwide.espacenet.com/ accessed October 10, 2018. [13] Questel Orbit intelligence. https://www.questel.com/business-intelligence -software/orbit-intelligence/. [14] Our Future is Glass – the sustainable packaging choice for the 21st century lifestyle, n.d. http://feve.org/. accessed October 3, 2018 [15] EPO-electronic Publications and Dissemination, Sample Queries and Tips for PATSTAT Global, (n.d). [16] Derwent innovation. https://clarivate.com/products/derwent-innovation/ accessed February 20, 2018. [17] M. Tupy, P. Mokrejs, D. Merinska, P. Svoboda, J. Zvonicek, Windshield recycling focused on effective separation of PVB sheet, J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 131 (2014) 1–9, https://doi.org/10.1002/app.39879. [18] I.H. A Azapagic, A. Emsley, Polymers: the Environment and Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, 2003. [19] D.G.J. Marie, METHOD AND INSTALLATION FOR TREATING LAMINATEDCGLASS, BE1011256A6, 1997. [20] K. Shunji, INTERLAYER FILM SEPARATION METHOD EP1950019A1, 2005. [21] H.J.M. Frank, METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CLEANING AND UPGRADING POSTCONSUMER AND/OR POST-INDUSTRIAL POLYVINYLBUTYRAL, EP3418328A1, 2017. [22] G. de Rassenfosse, H. Dernis, G. Boedt, An Introduction to the patstat database with example queries, Aust. Econ. Rev. (2014), https://doi.org/10.1111/14678462.12073. [23] G. de Rassenfosse, M. Kracker, G. Tarasconi, Getting started with PATSTAT register, Aust. Econ. Rev. (2017), https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8462.12214. [24] (n.d Power BI. https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/. [25] EP Register EPO. https://www.epo.org/searching-for-patents/legal/register. html#tab-1. [26] B. Kang, G. Tarasconi, PATSTAT Revisited: Suggestions for Better Usage, World Pat. Inf., 2016, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wpi.2016.06.001. [27] Shark solutions. https://www.shark-solutions.com/pvb-applications. [28] B. Swain, J. Ryang Park, D. Yoon Shin, K.S. Park, M. Hwan Hong, C. Gi Lee, Recycling of waste automotive laminated glass and valorization of polyvinyl

5. Conclusion A research methodology aimed at a comprehensive analysis of anticipatory aspects regarding technical solutions aimed at PVB recy­ cling is explained and such kind of systematic approach may in principle be replicated in many different technical sectors. Although several patent documents have been found describing technical solutions aimed at recycling the PVB interlayer of laminated glass, the search criteria adopted for investigating the PVB recycling into new laminated glass allowed us to focus on few patent documents and one NPL publication. The authors of each document independently set up and described methodologies which share a common principle based on the use of alkaline solutions soon after the glass comminution and some mention the possibility of recycling the alkaline solution too. Therefore, our findings seem consistent with a significant margin of implementation of economically sustainable and eco-friendly technical procedures suitable for the recycling of PVB in order to be reincorporated in laminated glass. The recycling of glass in general, achieved by means of technologies simultaneously aimed at waste management and at mitigating the climate change, does represent a priority, as confirmed by the frequent assignment to the patent applications, upon filing to the competent authorities, of CPC classification codes belonging to the subclass Y02W. 19

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butyral through mechanochemical separation, Environ. Res. 142 (2015) 615–623, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2015.08.017. [29] Technology Request - looking for a technical solution for the recycling of of laminated glass/Windshields particularly the PVB. http://first.aster.it/simpler/20 17/EA_08022018.pdf, 2018. [30] Kuraray butacite ®G - safety glass interlayers from 100% recycled PVB, n.d. https ://www.trosifol.com/fileadmin/user_upload/TROSIFOL/support/downloads /product_brochures/pdf_documents/butacite_g/Butacite_G-2014_NEW.pdf.

trainee during the last edition of “Patlib reorientation project” (2017), a course periodi­ cally organized by the European Patent Office and dedicated to the European offices affiliated to the PATLIB network. In this occasion he has successfully completed a series of training sessions, one of which dedicated to the “patent intelligence” based analysis, and has been appointed as teacher for future editions of the course, regarding in particular the strategies aimed at the patent documents analysis. Additional competencies regarding trademarks, industrial design and geographical indications have been gained following the advanced course organized by the World Intellectual Property Organization. In Jun 2019 he has been acknowledged as Qualified Patent Information Professional (QPIP) by the International Standards Board for Qualified Patent Information Professionals (ISBQPIP). He has a background in Molecular Genetics, having received the bachelor degree in Molecular Biology in 1995 and having subsequently received the PhD title at the Inter­ national Centre of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in 2001. He has then spent three years as post-doc at the New York University and two years as post-doc at the University of Trieste.

Riccardo Priore was born in Trieste, Italy, 1967. He is currently working as patent analyst and Intellectual Property consultant at the PATLIB office located within the AREA Science Park, a multi-sector science and technology park, operational since 1982 and founded with the aim of providing a link between the business community and the many international scientific institutions hosted in Trieste as well as other hi-tech italian academic in­ stitutions. He has been working since almost a decade as IP expert and has been involved as

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