The document states
This report analyses trends in meat substitute technologies, an emerging market as conscious consumerism and sustainability awareness grows. It considers two technologies; imitation meat and lab-grown meat. Recent patent data shows imitation meat technology is an area of growth and investment across the world. Between 2000 and 2012, patenting of imitation meat technologies maintained a low and relatively steady rate, with a significant increase since 2013. Large food companies are among the top applicants.
China dominates this sector as both the largest source of innovation and the largest patent filing destination in imitation meat. It is also responsible for much of the recent growth in patenting in this technology with Guizhou Bezon Food Industry filing the largest number of patents in this sector. The United States, Europe and Japan are the other major players in this sector, with Australia ranking equal fifth, alongside Canada, as a patent filing destination.
Lab-grown meat is a technology in its infancy, with only 10 patent families filed globally. This report outlines findings from an investigation of patent families filed since 2000, analysing trends, markets and commercial players in meat substitute technologies. ....
258 patent families have been filed in imitation meat. Patent family filings for imitation meat increased from 2013 onwards 85 per cent of imitation meat patent families are in an active state (in force or seeking patent protection) Guizhou Bezon Food Industry Company is the top global patent filer, with 18 patent families. China is the largest filing destination in the world for imitation meat patent families. Australia is equal fifth filing destinations for imitation meat. This report did not identify any patents filed by Australian applicants.The study comments
As the basis for this study, worldwide patent databases were searched for all products and processes for producing foodstuffs that were intended to imitate animal meat in appearance, texture and/or flavour. The search returned a total of 258 relevant INPADOC patent families (Appendix A) filed from 2000 onwards. A majority of the patents were directed to imitation meat products derived from plants, such as soy, but some were also directed to technologies that used non-meat animal- derived products, such as milk and eggs. These were not specifically excluded from the search. The search strategy used a combination of keywords, International Patent Classification (IPC) symbols and Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) symbols (Appendix B: Search Strategy).
Analysing patent family filing across time can indicate growth or declines in innovation or interest in a technology. Figure 1 shows the number of patent families filed each year, both in total and by their legal status. The number of patents that are in an active state (ie that are either in force or for which protection is being sought, and are not lapsed, expired or withdrawn) provides an indication of whether applicants are continuing to protect their inventions. It is clear from Figure 1 that imitation meat is an area of growing interest. Patenting activity was low but regular up until 2012, after which the number of applications increased significantly. In 2016, 55 new families were filed. The data is not complete from 2017 onwards due to a lag in patent publication; the dip in 2017–18 reflects incomplete data rather than a trend decline. Much of the recent activity has been due to a few Chinese companies, who have submitted many applications in a short space of time. These companies will be discussed further below in the Markets and Top Applicants sections. ...In relation to Lab Grown Meat the report states
The search strategy used a combination of keywords, International Patent Classification (IPC) symbols and Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) symbols (Appendix B: Search Strategy). Timeline We identified a total of 10 patent families filed for lab-grown meat, five in the early 2000’s and five between 2011 and 2017, see Figure 5. The data is incomplete from 2017 onwards due to a lag in patent publications. The search for lab-grown meat focuses on technologies for cell culture or tissue engineering of animal cells to create tissue similar to animal- derived meat. Culturing techniques for human cells, and culturing techniques directed at modifying the growth of cells in living animals, were not included in the analysis. With these restrictions in place, there is only a small number of patent families filed since 2000 that are directed to production of lab-grown meat for human consumption.
