Synthetic Biology – Grant Rates

This study has predominantly focused on trend analysis regarding SynBio related European Patent Office (EPO) applications (A1 & A2 kind codes). However, during August 2025 patent grants were investigated to assess if synthetic biology patenting is achieving sufficient allowance rates and how this is progressing for the dataset identified.

In figure 1, the number of patents which were granted since 2014 are revealed for the 40 SynBio topics identified.

The analysis shown in figure 1, reveals that patent grants are occurring across the 40 topics identified. It is very likely that some applications are still within the examination phase. This would have impacted topics such as Coronavirus vaccines & antibodies where the majority of patenting activity is quite recent in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In future versions of this report, the number of patent grants would be expected to increase for the emerging topics identified such as CRISPR & chimeric antigen receptors, etc. Topics such as genetically modified microorganisms are ranked in the top 5 (5th) for patent grants, forming the backbone of established and protected technologies providing significant contributions within SynBio.

Grant rates can be difficult to analyse as they could be lowered by a surge in recent patenting, patent applications still being examined due to complexity of subject matter, competitive areas of technology, amendments, etc. which can prolong the examination process. There is also the issue of allowance rates decreasing due to the difficulties of achieving patent grants in areas such as antibody technology with specific patentability requirements. To investigate patent grants further, we calculated the cumulative grant rate shown in in figure 2 for topics ranked 1-20 by total patent grants (identified in figure 1).

The analysis in figure 2, documents the overall or cumulative proportion of patent filings which are granted as time progresses, across each filing year between 2012-2021 (capped due to data drop-off of this study). Antibody technology has dropped well below the earlier 50% cumulative grant rate since 2016, with a rate of 27.6% in 2021. This is below other topics with high patenting levels such as recombinant proteins and nucleic acids. There is no patenting drop-off in antibody technology, it has been identified as a fast growing topic with a large volume of patent applications. It appears since 2016 many filings are still undergoing examination, etc. only a small proportion are identified as lapsed. Genetically modified microorganisms and transgenic plants have also decreased from higher grant rates since 2016, potentially due to complicated examination stages and recent patent applications which are still being examined. The cumulative grant rate for biofuels has continuously exceeded 40%. The remaining topics ranked 21-40 based on total patent grants (identified in figure 1) are shown in figure 3.

In figure 3, similar trends are observed for topics with recent patenting activity where grant rates are impacted by patent applications in the examination stage, with rates falling below 30% for filings in 2021. Few topics have achieved higher cumulative grant rates nearing 40% in 2021 such as biomass conversion & processing, whilst packaging, films and bioplastics have exceeded the 40% threshold in 2021 (42.2%). Across the 40 topics identified in figures 2 & 3, as patent applications progress through the examination stage, it appears previous grant rates (above 50% earlier in the decade) have now decreased, with figures around the 40% range and lower in 2021. Recent figures may be expected to increase as patent applications progress through the examination stage but there is evidence that in specific technologies such as antibodies, it is becoming more difficult to achieve granted patents with rates consistently below 50% since 2016.