Air pollution has been a menace in recent years posing serious threats to environmental and social
wellbeing. Government, authorities and industry have been at the forefront to tackle air pollution with the
help of policy reformation and technological innovation. This research study concentrates on looking into
the innovation activity in last decade to understand how industry has made technical breakthroughs and
carried out its exploitation in the field of Air Quality Control Systems (AQCS) and Environmental
Control Services (ECS). The aim is to understand the innovation activity in the technology domain and
observe patterns in relation to diffusion of innovation in different jurisdictions. Innovation trends in the
field of practice have been analyzed based upon the underlying principle that technology intensive
companies perform research & development to innovate and thus patent it to obtain right of practice in
different jurisdictions. The innovation trends in air pollution control technologies have only been
investigated on a general level in reviewed literature whereas the research study evaluates specific trends
in last decade therefore both academia and industry would benefit from an increased understanding of this
field.
The study has been conducted at a prominent multinational company active in air pollution control
technology business and R&D practices. Research study was the part of several practices performed at
the company. A literature study was done to understand the technical area and to perform a thorough
patent data search. Previous research studies and books have been used to form a holistic view for
analysis of patent data and drawing conclusion from the trends. Research question has been answered
using patent data from 5 innovative companies‟ practicing in AQCS technology domain.
The main findings of the research study include patent search keywords & IPC classes relevant to the
technical area, related patent statistics, patenting trends, assessment of innovation activity using
cumulative & individual patenting trends of 5 innovative companies and diffusion of innovation in
different countries using patenting trends in top 10 jurisdictions. Report highlights various countries on
the priority list of industry for protection and exploitation of developed technologies. Suggestions for
future research and further investigation have also been made as a part of the research report.