RTI started its global patents application quite early; however, it has not been very keen in pursuing the patents application among all those years. It seems that the company has taken no account of Chinese market as all of its patents in China were invalid. By Sep. 2014, there were 33 patents all together regarded to the field of titanium alloy for RTI. As we can see in the Fig. 3, RTI applied its first patent as early as 1966, but the curve of the application did not turn to be smooth and steady until the year of 1987.The period ranged from the end of 1970s to the end of 1980s was a vacancy for patents layout, and the company didn’t seem very active in the patents application, except in the year of 2004. The inactive layout strategy resulted in a low quantity in patents application.

Fig.3 Global Patents Application of RTI over the Years

In terms of technology layout of patents application, RTI paid more attention to the patents regarded to titanium alloy, titanium materials, and the processing techniques of titanium. Among the patents layout of titanium alloy, the company placed more emphasis on the titanium processing techniques as there were seven patents applications in terms of the field of casting, especially the continuous casting technique. In terms of the application areas, RTI has not only laid its patents layout in the field of aviation, but also in the field of sports apparatus, for example, the golf clubs. It’s worth noting that RTI has placed no patents layout yet in the field of titanium sponge that belongs to the upstream of the industry.

2. Strategies and Characteristics of RTI Patents Layout

RTI adopted sugar-coated patents layout together with the roadblock-pattern, so as to improve the degree of difficulty for competitors entering the technical fields.

Take patents layout of continuous casting technique as an example, RTI put forward several peripheral technologies regarded to continuous casting methods including the preheating methods for continuous casting, temperature control methods and devices in the continuous casting furnace, and the sealing casting methods in the continuous casting devices within three years. It has formed a patents network consisting of core patents and peripheral patents, and thus to effectively improve the difficulty for competitors entering the field of continuous casting.

Similarly, the hot forming technology of titanium bar has also been formed a small-scale roadblock-pattern layout of patents. RTI has successfully extended the network of continuous casting patents to the hot forming technology of titanium bar through two patents of the continuous casting techniques and equipment of the long-sized casting.

In the future, RTI would still concern the constructing of core patents complex including the processing techniques of titanium alloy of midstream industry chain, continuous casting techniques, and the titanium bar processing techniques.

There’s a wide range of processing techniques applied by RTI. In 1990s, the company proposed de-oxidation method for fire-resistant materials and the method of removing oxide layer on titanium ingoting; in 2002, it proposed the method for melting and casting titanium alloy and the method for melting the titanium alloy through plasma arc and electron beam; after 2006, RTI has formed a complete set of patents complex concerned continuous casting techniques on the basis of the patents of US2006102314 and US2006254746, and it further proposed the continuous casting techniques and equipment of long-sized casting represented by titanium bar with the aid of hot forming technology of titanium bar of 2007.

With the help of commercial acquisitions and asset sale, RTI adjusted the patent portfolio and completed the patents screen circle of the corresponding technologies. The company expanded the production and improving the processing ability by the means of acquisition.

At the same time, it also implemented strategic adjustment through asset sale. Since 1997, RTI has acquired Claro Precision Engineering of Canada and Remmele Engeenng of Aeromet of the UK and marched to the fields of downstream aviation, national defense, and medical devices with the goal of turning to be an independent producer of titanium bar. Obviously, acquisition has been an important way for RTI to consolidate its position as a leading enterprise.

RTI established six companies all together through acquisition and joint-venturing, among which the patents of Dynamet Technology and Osbom has effectively perfected the patents layout of RTI. Dynamet applied three patents in the field of titanium-tungsten alloy and thus constituted a complex with the core technology of powder metallurgy processing of titanium-tungsten alloy. Besides, Dynamet further proposed patents of the manufacturing methods of the fine-grained titanium alloy and oxygen-enriched TC4 alloy. With the help of the acquisition on June 2014, RTI has successfully involved the patents concerned titanium alloy, including the manufacturing technique of titanium-tungsten alloy, into its patents layout, which to some degree has made up the patents vacancy in the field of titanium alloy.

Analysis on Patents Layout of ATI

1.        Profile of Patents Layout of ATI

Although ATI started its global patents application quite late, it has been very active in the patents application. It was not until 1998 ATI applied its first patent, which was quite late compared with the other two magnates. With the commissioning of its titanium sponge factory in Raleigh, the upstream supply channel of ATI has been guaranteed, the patents application of ATI has hugely increased since 2010. In 2011, the annually applications mounted to the record high of 11. The active attitude of ATI on patents application helped the company to achieve a Corner Overtaking in the area of patents. By September 2014, ATI applied 49 patents in the field of global titanium alloy all together (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4 Global Patents Application of ATI over the Years

The patents layout of ATI is characterized by its wide target area and uniform market distribution. As we can see from Fig. 5, most of the patents layout of ATI distributed in the US, Europe, Australia, Japan, China, Canada, and South Korea. And in terms of the quantity of patents application, apart from the US, it was similar among the countries and areas. And a large proportion of the application of ATI was applied in the way of PCT.

It’s worth mentioning that most of the applications of ATI in China have already been audited but yet to wind up. The applications in the authorization and maintenance status still have 7 to 10 years to expire, which means ATI is still in the exploration stage in developing Chinese market.

Fig. 5 Distribution of ATI Global Patents Application

2. Strategies and Characteristics of ATI Patents Layout

With the strong independence among every single patent and few researches on sustaining technologies, the network of the patents layout of ATI has not fully established yet. Although ATI ranked the first in terms of the quantity of the patent applications among all three magnates, the company has not established a complete network of patents layout yet.

Similar to Timet and RTI, ATI adjusted its asset allocation through acquisition and asset sale. ATI adjusted it allocation of patents resource in the process of acquisition for three times all together. In 2006, Dynamic Flowform put forward a metal spinning method for processing a-p titanium alloy under ordinary temperature in one of its patents, by which it can not only produce net forming or near-net forming titanium alloy tubing but also reduce the waste of raw materials and cost.

In another application of Dynamic Flowform in 2013, which was US847954, the company proposed a centrifugal casting method for processing seamless pipe. By the means of acquisition, ATI received the core technologies of the field of metal spinning of tubing of Dynamic Flowform.

*This article is edited and translated by CCM. The original version comes from China Invention & Patent.

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