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Run your analysis now →https://www.patsnap.com/resources/blog/rd-blog/human-milk-oligosaccharide-production-patent-landscape/ · Patsnap · data cut-off 2026-07-31 · downloaded from the live page
Patent Landscape · Nutrition ProductsHuman Milk Oligosaccharide Production Patents: Concentration and White Space
- One assignee holds every record in scope. all 38 published records in scope trace to a single company, leaving no rival cluster to benchmark against.
- Filing peaked in 2017 and has not returned. 32 records published that year against a filing trend that falls to zero by 2026, with 2021-to-2024 activity down 100% on the evidence available.
- Microorganism engineering dominates the claim space. C12N covers 97.4% of the 38 records, while fermentation-specific C12P claims sit far behind at 21.1%, a gap worth checking before drafting.
38
Published Records
-100%
Filing Growth 2021→2024
US
Leading Jurisdiction
2017
Peak Filing Year
Filing growth compares 2021 (2 records) with 2024 (0) — 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.
Published byPatsnap Research··6 min readSourced from Patsnap Eureka
Overview
What the filing record shows
Patent activity around human milk oligosaccharide production in this dataset is unusually narrow: 38 published records, all of them attributable to a single assignee. That is not typical of a competitive field with entrants jockeying for position — it reads more like one company's sustained programme around engineered microbial strains and the enzymes used to build or clean up oligosaccharide structures, with everyone else absent from the public record captured here.
The technology composition backs this up. Claims cluster overwhelmingly around microorganism and genetic-engineering work (C12N), with a secondary presence in animal-feed applications (A23K) and a smaller footprint in fermentation and enzymatic synthesis (C12P). Purification, structural-identity confirmation and food-approval-adjacent claims are comparatively thin, which is where a newcomer's freedom to operate is least contested.
Filing activity and technology mix, 2015-2026
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee ranking and totals. Derived from a Patsnap search on Human Milk Oligosaccharide Production covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
The Data
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 38 records: when they were published, and which IPC subclasses they carry. Because a record can carry more than one class, the class shares add up to more than 100% of the record total.
Filing trend, 2015-2026
Publications peak sharply at 32 in 2017 and taper toward zero by 2026. The most recent years are understated because publication typically lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 and 2026 should not be read as a real drop-off yet — but 2021-to-2024 is complete enough to show an -100% change, and that figure is real.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
C12N (microorganisms and genetic engineering) touches 97.4% of the 38 records, making it the dominant claim territory. A23K (animal feed) sits at 57.9%, C12P (fermentation and enzymatic synthesis) at 21.1%, A61K (medicinal preparations) at 5.3% and C07K (peptides and proteins) at 2.6% — the last three are where claim density thins out.
Shares are the percentage of the 38 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 Human Milk Oligosaccharide Production covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.
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The most-cited records in this dataset
Representative Filing
Compositions Comprising Polypeptides having Galactanase Activity and Polypeptides having Beta-Galactosidase Activity
NOVOZYMES A/S
The present invention relates to compositions comprising polypeptides having galactanase activity and polypeptides having beta-galactosidase activity for use in e.g. animal feed. The present invention further relates to polypeptides having beta-galactosidase activity, polypeptides having galactanase activity and polynucleotides encoding the polypeptides. The invention also relates to nucleic acid constructs, vectors, and host cells comprising the polynucleotides as well as methods of producing and using the polypeptides.Filed by Novozymes, published 2019-05-02, this filing sits at the centre of the enzyme-composition cluster that anchors the dataset's most-cited records.
View filing detailsMost-cited records
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20190289880A1 | Polypeptides having Alpha-Galactosidase Activity and Polynucleotides Encoding Same | 6 |
| 2 | WO2017202997A1 | Compositions comprising polypeptides having galactanase activity and polypeptides having beta-galactosidase a… | 6 |
| 3 | WO2017202979A1 | Polypeptides having alpha-galactosidase activity and polynucleotides encoding same | 4 |
| 4 | WO2017202966A1 | Polypeptides having alpha-galactosidase activity and polynucleotides encoding same | 4 |
| 5 | WO2017202946A1 | Compositions comprising polypeptides having galactanase activity and polypeptides having beta-galactosidase a… | 3 |
| 6 | US11058129B2 | Animal feed additives | 2 |
| 7 | US20190144902A1 | Polypeptides Having Alpha-Galactosidase Activity and Polynucleotides Encoding Same | 2 |
Citation counts reward older records simply because they have had more time to be cited; read them as a signal of influence within this corpus, not as a measure of current importance.
Publication numbers are shown where the record carries one (7 of 7 rows); clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Citation counts and representative records. Derived from a Patsnap search on Human Milk Oligosaccharide Production covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
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What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Read together, the trend, the concentration figures and the IPC mix point to a field with one incumbent and several under-claimed branches rather than an open contest between many players.
Concentration
100.0%
of 38 records
One assignee, the whole record
The top 5 combined figure and the top 1 combined figure are identical: 38 of 38 records, 100.0% of all records in scope. There is no second cluster to compare against in this dataset.
Source: assignee ranking, this dataset
Filing momentum
-100%
2021 to 2024
Growth has not reappeared since the 2017 peak
The peak year was 2017 at 32 records; by 2024, the last year treatable as complete, filing had fallen to zero from 2021's count of 2 — a -100% change over that span.
Publication lag means 2025-2026 figures will still fill in
Claim density
97.4%
carry C12N
Microorganism engineering is the crowded territory
C12N touches 37 of the 38 records. A23K (animal feed) is the next largest at 57.9%, while C12P (fermentation and enzymatic synthesis) trails at 21.1% — a gap that matters for anyone drafting fermentation-process claims.
Source: IPC subclass distribution, this dataset
Eureka AI Agent
Looking for what nobody has claimed yet?
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to human milk oligosaccharide production, with the prior art for and against each one.
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Co-assignee relationships and derived observations. Derived from a Patsnap search on Human Milk Oligosaccharide Production covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
Players
Who is actually filing
The ranked list this dataset returns names a single assignee across all 38 records, with recent-year momentum for that assignee at zero in the latest year captured.
Incumbent
38
records
The sole ranked assignee
Every record in this dataset's assignee ranking belongs to one company, whose portfolio centres on engineered enzymes and host strains used in oligosaccharide-adjacent fermentation and animal-feed applications.
Recent-year momentum: 0 in the latest year
Filing geography
12
US filings
United States leads receiving offices
The United States receives the most filings at 12, ahead of the European Patent Office at 8, WIPO's PCT route at 4, and Australia and Brazil at 3 each.
Source: receiving office counts, this dataset
Structural gap
2.6%
carry C07K
Peptide and protein claims are thin
Only 1 of the 38 records carries a C07K peptide/protein classification, and A61K medicinal-preparation claims cover just 2 records — both far behind the C12N and A23K clusters.
Source: IPC subclass distribution, this dataset
Recent-year filing momentum
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Novozymes A/S | 0 | — |
Source: Patsnap Eureka. Assignee-level momentum. Derived from a Patsnap search on Human Milk Oligosaccharide Production covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
What's Next
Where to take this
The concentration and white-space patterns above are a starting point, not a full clearance opinion. The next steps depend on whether you are drafting, licensing or scouting for acquisition targets.
Model a specific claim against the incumbent's portfolio
Run a candidate claim in purification chromatography or byproduct removal against the full text of the incumbent's filings to see how much room actually remains.
Explore this in Patsnap EurekaTrack the next publication window
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025-2026 figures will keep moving; set a watch on new C12P and A61K filings before committing to a filing strategy.
Set up monitoring in Patsnap EurekaSource: Patsnap Eureka. Forward-looking reading of the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Human Milk Oligosaccharide Production covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish.Run this in Eureka MCP
FAQ
Common questions on this landscape
Within this dataset, a single assignee accounts for all 38 published records, or 100.0% of everything in scope. That is an unusually complete concentration and means there is no second-place cluster to compare filing strategy against in this particular corpus. Anyone assessing freedom to operate in this space should treat that one company's portfolio as the primary reference point, while keeping in mind that records outside this specific search string may exist elsewhere.
Filing peaked at 32 records in 2017 and has not returned to that level since. Looking at 2021 through 2024, the last year that can be treated as reasonably complete, filings fell 100% to zero. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in and should not yet be read as confirmation of a continued decline.
Microorganism and genetic-engineering claims under IPC class C12N appear in 97.4% of the 38 records, making it by far the most crowded territory. Animal-feed applications (A23K) follow at 57.9%. Fermentation and enzymatic synthesis (C12P) sits lower at 21.1%, and peptide/protein claims (C07K) and medicinal-preparation claims (A61K) are comparatively rare, which is where claim space is least occupied.
The evidence points to purification chromatography, byproduct removal, structural-identity confirmation, spray-dried powder formulation and novel-food-approval documentation as branches with noticeably fewer records than the dominant microorganism-engineering core. These are not proven-empty categories, but they carry far less claim density than C12N and A23K, which makes them worth scoping first for a new entrant. A freedom-to-operate search focused on these specific process steps is more informative than a broad keyword search across the whole field.
The United States receives the most filings among the receiving offices captured here, with 12, followed by the European Patent Office at 8 and the WIPO PCT route at 4. Australia and Brazil each show 3, and Germany shows 2. This distribution reflects where applicants sought protection in this dataset, not necessarily where R&D or manufacturing is concentrated.
Answers are grounded in the same dataset. Derived from a Patsnap search on Human Milk Oligosaccharide Production covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. 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.