The Division of Studies and Projects of BPTO’s Patents Department has made available a further sectoral study entitled “Categorization of biotechnology patents based on the International Patent Classification and analysis of the patent filing scenario in this sector in Brazil (2012-2016) “.
The study compared the concepts of biotechnology based on the International Patent Classification (IPC) codes used by WIPO and OECD and suggested a new classifications group, including some areas of biotechnology that had not previously been covered.
It also presents a categorization of biotechnology in 12 areas, making it possible to search in a structured way the patent documents in biotechnology in a comprehensive or more specialized way. Once the proposed set of IPCs has been validated, it has been used to search the patent documents related to biotechnology filed at the BPTO in recent years, and thus to present an overview of the patenting in biotechnology in Brazil, indicating the main characteristics of these patent applications as , for example, the main applicants and the areas of biotechnology with the greatest interest in patent protection in the country.
In this study, the analysis of biotechnology patenting in Brazil between 2012 and 2016 showed that the categories of greatest interest for obtaining patent protection in the country were “medicinal preparations containing peptides” (498 documents), “fermentation” processes ( 439 documents), “peptides containing more than 20 amino acids” (261 documents), “measurement and assay involving enzymes or microorganisms” (253 documents); “Immunoassays” (198 documents) and “biological treatment of water, sewage, sludge and sludge” (151 documents).
The study also indicates a greater participation of national depositors in the biotechnology patenting scenario in Brazil, demonstrating that the development of research and innovation in biotechnology in the country is a relatively recent activity and almost 75% of all patents licensed in Brazil come from universities and research centers in Brazil.
*Translated and adapted from the BPTO’s official web page. You can find the original publication (in Portuguese) here.