Recently, the Sustainable Packaging Coalition announced its 2020 SPC Innovator Award Winners. The award recognizes contributions and advancements towards more sustainable packaging in the following categories: Innovation in Responsible Sourcing, Innovation in Design Optimization, and Innovation in Recovery.
The Innovation in Responsible Sourcing Winner was UPM Raflatac with its Forest Film™. UPM Raflatac is a leading innovator for labeling solutions for sustainable packaging designs. Forest Film™ is a wood-based polypropylene film label material made from UPM BioVerno naphtha, a 100% wood-based solution based on crude tall oil generated from the residue of the pulping process. Surprisingly, UPM Raflatac does not have any patent documents in the biodegradable packaging sector so it will be interesting to see if it has any patent documents in the near future that may indicate where it intends to direct its products.
The winner of the Innovation in Recovery Winner was Graham Packaging Company. Graham Packaging has added texture to its reusable PET containers by using small bubbles at the areas most prone to scuffing. Another surprise for the biodegradable packaging sector is that Graham Packaging's most recent patents were issued in 1987 and were directed to degradable polymer compositions. It is currently unclear why Graham Packaging Company has very little patent activity in the biodegradable packaging sector.
As leading innovators in the space, UPM Raflatac and Graham Packaging may need to increase their patent activity to avoid any potential blockers in the future.
Take a look at all the other patent activity in the biodegradable packaging sector by exploring the unique Magic Number Patent Radian® here.
