Technology landscape and a short patentometric review for antibiofilm technologies

This study presents an overview and a short critical review of patented antibiofilm technologies. Patent information was used to determine scenarios that could be used by decision-makers or business intelligence. The study found that academia, mainly from the USA, has been applying for the most patents since 1997. Based on the S-curve analysis, the maturity of this technology sector is emerging. The technological specialization for the 10 most prominent patent applicants and state-of-the-art antibiofilm patents are presented.

The high dispersion of patent applicants, the presence of universities among the most active patent applicants, and the content of the patents analyzed are good indicators to infer that developed technologies are close to the academic level. Moreover, many efforts are necessary to bring these technologies into the market.

Polymers-N-based, amino acids and peptides, P and S compounds, chelating agents and organometallic complexes, nanoparticles, or composites are claimed to be active against biofilm formation. Such compounds are presented in this work, and in rare cases, they are described as compositions ready for use as marketable products.