Agricultural biotech patents: who holds them and how ownership concentrated

Patents have been used in the United States since 1790, and they often spur progress: the cotton gin (1793) made southern cotton far more profitable, and barbed wire (1868) gave a settling frontier cheap fencing. Today they mark ownership on agricultural biotechnology's expanding frontier, covering applications of new scientific techniques to farming, plant and animal breeding, crop inputs such as pesticides and fertilizer, food processing and more. This USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) article describes a database being assembled to study them.

A faster-rising trend

Ag biotech patents have risen faster than patenting across the U.S. economy overall. ERS ties this to more research and development, changing legal doctrine on what can be patented, and different strategic uses of intellectual property protection.

Ag biotech patents versus patenting overall. Image from ERS's page.

The database

To study the economic effects, ERS researchers and academic collaborators assembled comprehensive data on ag biotech patents and other intellectual property. At the time, it was being formatted into a computerized database meant to go online and be searchable. It classifies technologies used in agriculture, especially those from plant molecular biology, and records commercial ownership and public-sector interest. It is meant to support research on research and development spending, innovation and productivity as well.

Each patent is classified by scientific, agronomic and economic attributes, and many fall under several categories. One patent might count as "genomics" for identifying a beneficial plant trait by sequencing its DNA, as "genetic transformation" for putting the trait into a plant, and as "protection, nutrition, and biological control of plants and animals" because the plant shows higher yield, pest resistance or drought tolerance. Others cover "metabolic pathways," naturally occurring chemical reactions that regulate an organism's functions, or "pharmaceuticals," since products may have livestock or human uses. Many human drugs, such as insulin, are made with plant or animal cell cultures.

Patents issued by technology class. Image from ERS's page.

Who owns the patents

Patents are also grouped by owner type: firms, non-profits, the federal government and others. Most U.S. ag biotech patents go to commercial firms, with universities, state agricultural experiment stations and the federal government also filing. Firms patent to establish market share, earn royalties and sometimes keep competitors from using a technology. Universities, non-profits and public research bodies often use patents and licensing to transfer technology.

Patents by owner type. Image from ERS's page.

Concentration

The database also tracks ownership changes from mergers, acquisitions and divestitures from 1988 to 2000. Mergers typically concentrate patent ownership. Counting acquisitions and splits, the top ten patent assignees controlled over half of ag biotech patents issued through 2000; by the names on the original patents, they would have held only about one-third.

Concentration of ownership since 1995. Image from ERS's page.

Sources

• USDA Economic Research Service, Amber Waves, https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2003/november/ag-biotech-patents-who-is-doing-what; rewritten in hubnx's own words.