Technological prospecting for patents on assistive technology related to mobility aid resources

Abstract

The present study carried out a technological prospecting in order to present and discuss the main Assistive Technology patents focused on the mobility aid category. This is an exploratory research, with documental and applied research procedures, with a quali-quantitative approach, based on searches carried out in the international database Questel Orbit Intelligence for investigation in patent documents. The results found made it possible to map and analyze the evolution of technological production in the world market for assistive products. From this analysis, the growing interest in the development and protection of resources related to mobility was identified, as well as inventors with greater productivity; the main patent applicants, such as the prominent academic institutions; the leading countries in patent protection requests, such as China and the United States; the related and most cited terminologies in patent documents and the selection of technologies related to the scope of the research, in order to discuss the main technological trends in these products