Analysis of research focus and trend of Chinese patents related to cigarettes with breakable capsules

A total of 339 patents related to cigarettes with breakable capsules were published by the State Intellectual Property Office from 1985 to 2017. These were statistically analyzed to assess the status quo and to forecast development trends. The results showed that:1)The total number of patents related to cigarettes with breakable capsules increased continuously from 2010 to 2017, and the growth rate of invention patents was higher than the other two patent types. The technology for cigarettes with breakable capsules was in the rapid development period and the application number could increase further in the future viewing from both patent index and technology life cycle. 2)The number of patents applied by domestic tobacco industry accounted for 59.1% of the total. Among them, China Tobacco Hubei Industrial Limited Corporation possessed the largest number of application. However, the amount of patents applied by Philip Morris International Inc. was the highest in foreign applicants. 3)A24D technology would still be the hot research topics in the coming period. C11B, A24F, G01N, and 27-99 subclasses might be the potential research focus. 4)Adequate attention should be paid to the fields of appearance of capsule filters and capsule preparation methods.