Companies with the most additive manufacturing patents worldwide 2012-2021

* A patent family is defined as a group of patent documents all of which have the same set of priorities. I.e., it is a group of patent documents that protect the same invention across authorities.

The owner of a patent includes all patents owned by a company and its subsidiaries (by at least 50%) based on comprehensive research on corporate structures, M&A, Spin-offs, company names changes, patent transactions. PatentSight also tracks former names of companies and subsidiaries, ongoing mergers and acquisitions, acquisitions of the past, reassignments, companies that have the same applicant, and transliterations by patent offices.

Technology field definition by Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property – ip-search: "Additive manufacturing is a process through which three-dimensional (3-D) solid objects are created. It enables the creation of physical 3-D models of objects using a series of additive or layered development framework, where layers are laid down in succession to create a complete 3-D object. First, it takes graphical data input from the computer, which is often created using a computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) tool, and cuts the data to serve separate object layers or components. The segmented/layered graphical data is sent to the 3-D printer, which applies the required combination of raw material for that particular layer. The printer then adds up the product development layer by layer until it is completely designed and finished according to the design criteria."