Alternative Proteins

A synthetic biology perspective

A subset of SynBio - Alternative proteins patents were identified during the hybrid topic modelling stage applied to SynBio EPO patents. The publication and filing year trends of the subset are shown in figure 1. Trend data discussed below are based on EP A1/A2 applications.

In figure 1, the peak publication figures occurred in 2024 (625 publications) with a recent 12.6% increase occurring in 2024 (625 publications) year-on-year. During 2016-24 the topic area has grown by 23.6% CAGR which is strong growth, representing an important area of SynBio innovation. There exists a similarly increasing trend in patent filings occurring since 2018 which could indicate that growth will continue in this area.

The INPADOC legal status breakdown of the synthetic biology alternative proteins subset published since 2015 is shown in figure 2.

The INPADOC based legal status stats in figure 2 revealed 57.6% of patents are pending with 19.5% granted, suggesting this is a developing field with a reasonable proportion of granted innovation.

Patent family territory analysis

The INAPDOC patent families comprising the topic identified EPO patents were analysed to identify the top 30 territories where patents are filed. Analysing the publication countries alone is insufficient as major countries such as France, the UK, Germany, etc. may not publish patents going through the European (EPO) route, especially when pending. To further supplement the available data, a bespoke analysis was conducted standardising the publication countries and including ‘protected countries’ to include patent rights which are pending or granted based on legal status. There are caveats which include:

  • The study methodology is focused on EPO patents and may not capture assignees/applicants that file only in home territories or don’t file in Europe via EPO filings.
  • The protected country data may not be fully up to date, due to INPADOC data availability and where EPO patents are recent filings. The standardisation procedure ensures a territory is only counted once per family. The territory analysis is visualised in 3, EPO and WO (PCT) patents have been included for reference purposes. Despite the caveats, the analysis provides useful indicators regarding territories where applicants are filing patents within this field, based on publications since 2015 for a relatively recent perspective.

In figure 3, approx. 82% of the patent families identified had at least one US national filing. Other key territories include China (63.8%). Below the 50% threshold, key territories include Japan (48.8%), Canada (48.6%), Australia (39.4%) and Brazil (36.8%).

Assignee analysis

The total number of publications for the top 30 applicants are shown in figure 4, contrasting the overall publication period (2015-24) with a more recent perspective during 2020-2024.