Acetogenic Bacteria Cofactor Patents: Who Leads, Where Gaps Are 2026
- Concentrated at the top. Five assignees hold 70.3% of all 111 records in scope, and ten hold 83.8% — a short list controls most of the filed claim space.
- Fermentation dominates the IPC mix. C12P covers 95.5% of records and C12N 82.9%, while bioreactor hardware (C12M) and electrolytic routes (C25B) each sit at just 8.1% — the engineering-adjacent classes are thin.
- Filing has not grown in a straight line. Activity peaked at 12 records in 2020; the most recent filing years are undercounted because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months.
Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 111 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent families that combine acetogenic bacteria or microorganisms with cofactor and redox engineering language — NADH balance, NADPH supply, redox ratio, cofactor recycling, electron transfer, or energy charge — filed under the fermentation, microorganism and enzyme-assay classes (C12N1/20, C12P7/40, C12Q1/04). The scope is deliberately narrow: it is not general acetogen biology, it is the intersection where redox and cofactor control is claimed directly.
111 published records sit in scope as of the 2026-07-31 cut-off, ranked across 44 assignees. The picture that emerges is a field with a small set of repeat filers sitting on dense fermentation-process claims, a thin band of hardware and electrochemical filings around them, and a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants.
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Filing trend, IPC composition and receiving offices
Three views of the same 111 records: when they were filed, what technical classes they carry, and where applicants sought protection.
Filing trend
Filings rose unevenly through the period and peaked at 12 records in 2020. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the last one to two years in the chart understate real filing activity and should not be read as a slowdown.
IPC composition
Fermentation and enzymatic synthesis (C12P) appears on 95.5% of the 111 records and microorganism/genetic-engineering claims (C12N) on 82.9%; a record can carry multiple classes so these shares overlap. Bioreactor apparatus (C12M) and electrolytic production (C25B) each sit at 8.1%, and separation processes (B01D) and inorganic compound chemistry (C01B) each at 5.4% — evidence that claim density is heavily weighted toward the biological process itself rather than the surrounding hardware or downstream chemistry.
Shares are the percentage of the 111 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Acetogenic Bacteria Cofactor Engineering with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about acetogenic bacteria cofactor engineering and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative recent filing
Enhancing hydrogen and carbon dioxide use in acetogenic monocultures and cocultures
A method for enhancing hydrogen uptake by cells of an acetogenic bacterium in a culture is provided. The method comprises incubating the cells in a liquid medium supplemented with an external gas mixture comprising H2 and CO2; overexpressing an uptake hydrogenase and an associated electron transfer protein in the cells; increasing uptake of the H2 by the cells; and enhancing uptake of the CO2 by the cells. The culture may be a coculture with additional cells of a non-acetogenic bacterium that natively produces H2 from catabolism of an organic molecule.Filed by Papoutsakis, Eleftherios — published 2025-11-06 as WO2025178825A3.
View full record| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2010064933A1 | Optimised fermentation media | 56 |
| 2 | WO2012177710A1 | Microorganisms for producing butadiene and methods related thereto | 55 |
| 3 | WO2015103590A1 | Anaerobic electrochemical membrane bioreactor and process for wastewater treatment | 27 |
| 4 | US20110300593A1 | Optimised fermentation media | 25 |
| 5 | US20170298363A1 | Non-natural microbial organisms with improved energetic efficiency | 15 |
| 6 | US20160215302A1 | Method of producing higher alcohols | 12 |
| 7 | WO2014043690A1 | Microbial electrosynthetic cells | 11 |
| 8 | WO2014020599A1 | Use of the reductive glycine pathway for generating formatotrophic and autotrophic microorganisms | 10 |
| 9 | US20160215304A1 | Aerobic method of producing alcohols | 8 |
| 10 | US9175408B2 | Microbial production of multi-carbon chemicals and fuels from water and carbon dioxide using electric current | 7 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations — read them as a signal of influence on the field, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Read together, the concentration, class mix and citation pattern point to where claim space is occupied and where it is not.
A short list controls most of the field
Five assignees hold 70.3% of all 111 records and ten hold 83.8%. For a new entrant, this means the core fermentation and cofactor-recycling process claims are likely already occupied by a handful of repeat filers, and freedom-to-operate work should start with their portfolios specifically rather than the field broadly.
Fermentation claims dominate; hardware claims are thin
C12P (fermentation and enzymatic synthesis) and C12N (microorganism engineering) between them touch the large majority of records, while bioreactor apparatus and electrolytic production sit at 8.1% each. That gap suggests the biological mechanism is well-claimed but the reactor and electrochemical integration layer is comparatively open.
Influence sits with older fermentation-media patents
The most-cited records in this set are older fermentation-optimisation and butadiene-pathway filings, not recent redox-specific ones. That is expected in a citation count taken from a fixed corpus — older filings simply have had longer to be cited — and should not be read as those routes being more commercially active today.
No clean growth line to point to
Filing activity peaked in 2020 rather than building steadily toward the present, and the dataset does not support a computable growth rate once the publication lag on recent years is accounted for. Treat the trend as uneven rather than declining.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to acetogenic bacteria cofactor engineering, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranked leaders span industrial biotech, energy majors and university tech-transfer offices; below them a long tail files once or twice each.
One filer well ahead of the field
The leading assignee holds 37 of the 111 records in scope, well clear of fifth place at 7. That gap is wide enough that a single company's continuation strategy and geographic filing choices matter more here than in a flatter field.
A cluster of established repeat filers
Assignees ranked second through tenth include energy and industrial biotech names alongside research-foundation and university filers, each holding single-digit record counts. Co-assignee pairs among named inventors (three pairs each appearing four times) point to a tight collaborating group rather than isolated labs.
Many single-filing entrants
Beyond the top ten, the ranked list thins quickly to entities with one or two records each. This is typical of an academically-adjacent field: individual labs and small biotechs file narrowly around a specific strain or pathway rather than building broad portfolios.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Genomatica Inc | 0 | -100% |
| Evonik Operations GmbH | 0 | — |
| Yeda Research and Development Co Ltd | 0 | — |
| Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main | 0 | — |
| Max Planck Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Wissenschaften eV | 0 | — |
| MUSC Foundation for Research Development | 0 | — |
| HAAS THOMAS | 0 | — |
| DEMLER MARTIN | 0 | — |
Where to take this
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether you are scouting freedom-to-operate, tracking a competitor, or looking for an open filing angle.
Check the leading assignee's full portfolio
With one company holding 37 of 111 records, a targeted review of its claim scope and continuation family is more useful than a field-wide search before committing to a fermentation-process filing.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaTest claim language against the thin classes
Bioreactor apparatus and electrolytic production each sit at 8.1% of records — draft and stress-test claims there against the existing filings before assuming the space is open.
Run a claim comparison in EurekaWatch the co-filing cluster
The strongest co-assignee pairs each appear four times, suggesting an active collaborating group whose future filings are worth monitoring directly.
Set up inventor tracking in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
One assignee leads with 37 of the 111 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-ranked assignee at 7. The top five assignees together account for 70.3% of all records, and the top ten for 83.8%, so the field is concentrated at the top with a long tail of smaller filers behind them. Anyone doing freedom-to-operate work should start with the leading assignee's specific claim scope rather than searching the field broadly.
The search combines acetogenic bacteria or microorganism terms with redox and cofactor language — NADH balance, NADPH supply, redox ratio, cofactor recycling, electron transfer, or energy charge — restricted to microorganism, fermentation-product and enzyme-assay patent classes. It excludes general acetogen biology that does not touch redox or cofactor control directly, and it excludes filings outside those three IPC classes even if they mention acetogens.
The data does not support a clean growth or decline reading. Filing peaked at 12 records in 2020 rather than climbing steadily, and because patent publication typically lags filing by about 18 months, the most recent one to two years in the trend are understated and should not be read as a slowdown. A growth rate is not computable from this dataset once that lag is accounted for.
Fermentation and enzymatic synthesis claims (IPC class C12P) appear on 95.5% of the 111 records, and microorganism or genetic-engineering claims (C12N) on 82.9%. Bioreactor apparatus (C12M) and electrolytic production of compounds (C25B) each sit at only 8.1%, meaning the biological mechanism is heavily claimed while the surrounding reactor and electrochemical hardware is comparatively open. A single record can carry multiple classes, so these percentages overlap rather than summing to 100%.
The clearest gaps sit in classes adjacent to the dense fermentation and microorganism core: bioreactor electron-transfer hardware, electrolytic cofactor regeneration, membrane-based redox separation, and coculture gas-uptake control all carry far fewer records than the core biological claims. These are not guaranteed-open — they simply carry less filing density than the dominant classes, so a claim there needs its own prior-art check before relying on that gap.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.