Alternative meat patents are rising, but which country leads the way?

As companies working in alternative meat – cultivated meat, fermentation-made meat and plant-based meat – proliferate, so do new ingredients and new technologies.

One thing that has grown alongside them is patents. As companies develop transformative techniques and processes, they need to mark them as intellectual property.

Growth of patents in the alternative meat sector​

IP in meat alternatives have risen significantly as the market has grown, covering a wide range of areas, according to legal services company UnitedLex

Some players have applied for a large number of patents. The leader of the pack in this regard is US plant-based meat manufacturer Impossible Foods, who has filed over 300 patents (with around half granted), according to UnitedLex. In second place is US biotech company The Every Co, with over 100 applications.

The US also leads in number of patents filed, with more than 200 (more than 80 of which have been granted). Europe, on the other hand, has fewer than 30 applications granted. China is also a key player in this space, with more than 100 applications and more than 20 grants. However, many of those filed in Europe and China are from US-based assignees, suggesting US dominance in the sector. 

Getting a patent granted​

Much as in any field, to get a patent granted in alternative meats, “your invention has got to be new, over everything that was known beforehand,” Nick Sutcliffe, patent lawyer and partner at law firm Mewburn Ellis, told FoodNavigator.

There is a tension in the cultivated meat space, he told us, between keeping knowledge secret and publishing patents.

“Working out what is suitable for a patent and what is better to be kept as a trade secret I think is a challenge for a lot of these companies.”

On the one hand, once the patent is published, a process, previously secret, will be known to the whole world. This is a risk. On the other, many manufacturers are looking to “crystalise the value in their tech.”

Having an IP position has the potential to boost collaboration in the sector, believes Sutcliffe. “It crystallises what it is you’ve got to share with somebody else.”

What areas need patents?​

Many of the patents on cell biology that Sutcliffe looks over are focused on cells for therapeutic purposes. Cells for meat are, he told us, “completely different in terms of scale and the need for economy.”

Some of the key facets of cultivated meat production that are most in need of patents include the media, the cell strains, the processes by which you get the cells you want and those by which you assemble the cells to create your product.

IP activity is also flourishing in the area of precision fermentation. Sutcliffe has, he told us, seen a lot of patents covering the ‘whole of the fermentation process.’