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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/crop-breeding-and-agricultural-biotechnology-patent-landscape-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-08-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Agriculture & Agricultural BiotechnologyCrop breeding and agricultural biotechnology patents: who leads and where claim space is still open
- 36.2% of all 1,510 records sit with just five assignees, so a filing decision in this space is really a decision about how to sit next to a handful of incumbents.
- Filings grew 20% from 2021 to 2024 (66 to 79 records), the last span the data treats as complete before publication lag understates 2025-2026.
- C12N microorganism and genetic-engineering claims cover 68.8% of records while foods (A23L, 6.3%) and medicinal preparations (A61K, 4.8%) are comparatively thin, marking where trait work has not yet been pushed downstream.
1,510
Published Records
36%
Top-5 Share of All Records
+20%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
Filing growth compares 2021 (66 records) with 2024 (79) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 1,510 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
Published byPatsnap Research··6 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Field Overview
What this landscape covers
This landscape draws on 1,510 published records matched against crop breeding terms combined with field sensing, plant growth, water application, biological trait, farm equipment and animal health concepts. The scope spans genetic engineering of plants and microorganisms, trait detection methods, and the agronomic equipment and monitoring layers that sit around them. Records run from 2015 through the 2026-08-31 cut-off, with 2024 the last year the trend can be read as complete given an approximate 18-month publication lag.
Filing activity peaked in 2018 at 79 records and has since moved in a band rather than a straight decline; the 2021-2024 span shows renewed growth. Because a single record often carries several IPC classes, the technology composition below is read against the full 1,510-record base, not against itself.
Filing activity and technology composition, 2015-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Crop Breeding & Agricultural Biotechnology Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
The Numbers
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 1,510-record corpus: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
From 62 records in 2017 to a 2018 peak of 79, activity has held in a similar band since. The 2021-2024 span shows a 20% increase (66 to 79 records) before the most recent two years understate true filing volume due to publication lag.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
C12N (microorganisms and genetic engineering) touches 68.8% of records and A01H (new plants and plant breeding) touches 53.6%, confirming the corpus is anchored in core trait and breeding science. Downstream categories such as foods (A23L, 6.3%) and medicinal preparations (A61K, 4.8%) are present but comparatively lightly claimed.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,510 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Crop Breeding & Agricultural Biotechnology Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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The most-cited records in this landscape
Representative Filing
IoT-based farming and plant growth ecosystem (US11195015B2)
WREATH, INC.
Describes a controlled-environment agriculture method: a positive-pressure growth chamber with multi-level benches on vertical hoists, motorized transport rails for seeding, harvesting and grow-media recovery, and automated regulation of temperature, humidity, CO2, watering and lighting to hit preset plant-growth targets.Filed by Wreath, Inc.; published 2021-12-07.
Highest-cited records in scope
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO1994011520A2 | Novel plants and processes for obtaining them | 699 |
| 2 | WO2012082548A2 | Soybean event SYHT0h2 and compositions and methods for detection thereof | 659 |
| 3 | EP0270356A2 | Plant-cell transformation by accelerated particles coated with DNA and apparatus therefor. | 497 |
| 4 | US6107547A | Transgenic plants that exhibit enhanced nitrogen assimilation | 253 |
| 5 | WO2000060089A1 | Genetic trait breeding method | 207 |
| 6 | WO1992015675A1 | Particle mediated transformation of cotton | 181 |
| 7 | WO2010085705A2 | Mutant hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase polypeptides and methods of use | 157 |
| 8 | WO2011068567A1 | Novel hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase polypeptides and methods of use | 144 |
| 9 | US20210158041A1 | Apparatus and method for agricultural data collection and agricultural operations | 140 |
| 10 | US20050072047A1 | Tobacco having reduced nicotine and nitrosamines | 139 |
Citation counts inside this corpus skew toward older, foundational filings; treat them as a signal of influence on later work, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Crop Breeding & Agricultural Biotechnology Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the data says about this field
Four patterns worth carrying into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision.
Concentration
36.2% of 1,510 records
top 5 combined share
The top of the field is dense, not crowded end to end
Five assignees hold over a third of all records in scope, with the leader alone at 199 records. Past the top ten (47.8% combined), the ranking thins into a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants, which is where most freedom to operate actually sits.
Based on the 100-company assignee ranking.
Trend
+20%, 2021-2024
filing growth, complete years
Growth is real but recent years understate it further
The 66-to-79 record rise from 2021 to 2024 is the cleanest read of momentum available; 2025 and 2026 figures will keep revising upward as publications catch up with filing dates.
2024 is the last year treated as complete.
Composition
68.8% C12N vs 6.3% A23L
core science vs. downstream food application
Trait science is heavily claimed; downstream food use is not
Microorganism and genetic-engineering claims (C12N) and new-plant breeding claims (A01H, 53.6%) dominate. Food-product applications (A23L) and medicinal preparations (A61K) sit far lower, suggesting downstream commercialisation claims have not kept pace with upstream trait work.
Shares are of all 1,510 records; a record may carry multiple IPC classes.
Collaboration
10 co-assignee pairs
identified in the dataset
Co-filing is rare and concentrated around a few links
The strongest pairing links CropDesign with the French national research centre CNRS at 10 joint records; the next strongest pairs run through Syngenta with named individual inventors. Outside these links, most assignees file independently.
Counts reflect co-assignee pairs in the ranked dataset.
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Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to crop breeding & agricultural biotechnology patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Crop Breeding & Agricultural Biotechnology Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The leader board is short and the tail is long. Momentum in the most recent year is muted across the board, which is consistent with publication lag rather than a real pullback.
Leader
199 records
leading assignee
One assignee holds a clear first position
The top-ranked assignee's 199 records are more than triple the fifth-place total of 58, setting a scale that no other single filer matches in this corpus.
Assignee ranking, 100 companies.
Mid-field
58 at fifth, 26 at tenth
records at rank 5 and rank 10
A tight mid-tier sits behind the leader
Ranks two through ten hold the bulk of the remaining top-10 share (722 records, 47.8% of all records), spanning seed developers, agrochemical majors and university-affiliated filers.
Top 10 combined share of all 1,510 records.
Momentum
+100% YoY, 2 records
latest-year change, leading mover
Recent-year activity is thin across named filers
Most tracked assignees show zero records in the latest year, and the one with positive YoY movement is working off a small base of two records. This reflects publication lag more than an actual drop in R&D activity.
Momentum figures cover the latest recorded year only.
Recent-year filing momentum by assignee
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Monsanto Technology LLC | 2 | +100% |
| Syngenta Participations AG | 0 | — |
| Sakata Seed Corporation | 0 | — |
| BioConsortia, Inc. | 0 | — |
| BASF Enzymes LLC | 0 | — |
| New York University | 0 | — |
| University of Guelph | 0 | — |
| BioConsortia, Inc. | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Crop Breeding & Agricultural Biotechnology Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's Next
Where to take this analysis
The landscape points to three practical next steps for a team deciding where to file or diligence.
Map claims against the top 10
With 47.8% of all records held by ten assignees, a freedom-to-operate check should start there before widening to the long tail.
Explore assignee claims in EurekaWatch the downstream gap
Food-application and medicinal-preparation claims sit well below core trait science, which is where new filings face the least prior art density.
Run a white-space search in EurekaTrack the next complete filing year
2024 is the last complete year in this data; revisit filing-trend figures once 2025 publications finish landing.
Set up trend monitoring in EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Crop Breeding & Agricultural Biotechnology Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions on this landscape
The assignee ranking in this dataset is led by one company with 199 records, more than triple the fifth-place total of 58. The top five combined hold 36.2% of all 1,510 records in scope, and the top ten hold 47.8%. Past the top ten, the ranking thins into a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants, so the field is concentrated at the top but not closed off below it.
Filing activity peaked in 2018 at 79 records and has moved in a band since, with a documented 20% increase from 66 records in 2021 to 79 in 2024. That 2021-2024 span is the most reliable recent read because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, meaning 2025 and 2026 figures will keep revising upward and should not yet be read as a slowdown.
Microorganisms and genetic engineering (IPC class C12N) touch 68.8% of the 1,510 records, and new plants and plant-breeding claims (A01H) touch 53.6%, making these the most heavily claimed areas. Peptides and proteins (C07K, 20.8%) and biocides or agrochemicals (A01N, 11.3%) follow well behind. Because records can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should be read against the full record base, not against each other.
The clearest gaps sit downstream of core trait science: food-product applications (A23L) appear in only 6.3% of records and medicinal preparations (A61K) in 4.8%, far below the 68.8% and 53.6% seen in microorganism engineering and plant breeding. Sub-areas such as field-sensor-triggered irrigation control, animal-health genomic trait detection, and farm-equipment integration with breeding data also show comparatively light claim density in this corpus, making them worth a closer look before filing near the crowded core.
US11195015B2, assigned to Wreath, Inc. and published 2021-12-07, covers a controlled-environment agriculture system: a positive-pressure growth chamber with multi-level benches on vertical hoists, motorized transport rails handling seeding, harvesting and grow-media recovery, and automated control of temperature, humidity, CO2, watering and lighting. It sits in the farm-equipment and plant-growth-monitoring segment of this landscape rather than in the genetic trait or breeding-method core, so it is most relevant to indoor and vertical farming infrastructure, not to trait engineering claims.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Crop Breeding & Agricultural Biotechnology Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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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.