Bayer on the top of China’s agrochemical patent of invention

According to the report “China’s Intellectual Property Creation Index 2012” issued by China Center for Intellectual Property in Agriculture (CCIPA), Bayer’s number of effective patent of invention in agrochemical industry far exceeds that of Chinese domestic enterprises and research institutes, ranking on the top of agrochemical patent of invention with a total number of 306.5 patents. The next ones on the chart are BASF with 144 patents, Syngenta with 130 patents, Shandong Jinzhengda Ecological Engineering Co., Ltd with 101.5 patents and Sumitomo with 87.5 patents; among the research institutes Chinese Academy of Sciences has the largest number of patents, i.e. 155.33 patents, followed by South China Agricultural University with 105.42 patents, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences with 63 patents, China Agricultural University with 59.33 patents and Northwest Agriculture & Forestry University with 45 patents. 

Chart of China’s Agrochemical Patent of Invention (Enterprise)

Ranking	Licensed		Effective
	Patent Owner	Number	Patent Owner	Number
1	Bayer Group	497.00	Bayer Group	306.50
2	BASF	213.00	BASF	144.00
3	Syngenta	159.00	Syngenta	130.00
4	Sanofi-Aventis	135.00	Shandong Jinzhengda Ecological Engineering Co., Ltd	101.50
5	Sumitomo	125.00	Sumitomo	87.50
6	Rohm and Haas Company	108.50	Sinochem Group	75.00
7	Shandong Jinzhengda Ecological Engineering Co., Ltd	101.50	Rohm and Haas Company	63.00
8	Sinochem Group	96.50	Sanofi-Aventis	53.50
9	Novartis AG	85.83	Novartis AG	52.50
10	American Cyanamid Company	64.00	Nanjing Red Sun co., Ltd	33.00
Note: patent under joint application is calculated as per number of applicant in average.

According to the statistics of the report, the annual agriculture-related patent applications in China over recent year have increased by 26.37%. Up until end 2011, the total number of agriculture-related patent applications, licensed patents and effective patents were respectively 178,757, 50,452 and 32,985. However the overall quality of agriculture-related patent in China appears to be lower than that of developed countries; the agriculture-related patent application and licensing ratio in China is 41.91%, which is apparently lower than the 52.10% in developed countries. Among the licensed varieties in China, majority is owned by research institutes accounting for 63.56%; among the licensed patents in China, 44.74% is owned by research institutes while only 17.2% is owned by Chinese enterprises. It is worthy of note that among the licensed patents in China as being owned by foreign entity, patents owned by enterprises reached as high as 81.87%

As regards to agri-biotechnology industry, Novo Group has the largest number of effective patent of invention, i.e. 162.5 patents, followed by Ajinomoto with 156.5 patents, Hoffmann-La Roche Co., Ltd with 98.33 patents, Sanofi-Aventis with 64.83 patents and DSM Intellectual Property Asset Management Co., Ltd with 64.17 patents. Among research institutes, Chinese Academy of Sciences has the largest number of patents, i.e. 789.58 patents, followed by Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences with 330.08 patents, Zhejiang University with 253.67 patents, China Agricultural University with 204.83 patents and Huazhong Agricultural University with 166.5 patents.