Soil & Plant Health Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- 40.6% concentration at the top. The five leading assignees combined account for 15,830 of the 39,023 records in scope — filing here means competing directly with occupied ground, not empty field.
- Filing has cooled from its 2019 peak. Volume ran from 1,542 in 2019 down to 892 in 2024, a -31% move over 2021-2024 alone, though 2025-2026 figures are still filling in as publications lag behind filing.
- Biocide and breeding classes dominate; sensor and data classes barely register. A01N and A01H alone touch roughly two in five records, while the field-sensor and health-data language in this search sits on comparatively thin, recent filing.
Filing growth compares 2021 (1,292 records) with 2024 (892) — 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 39,023 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 39,023 published records at the intersection of agricultural soil and plant health language and workflow or sensor-adjacent terms such as field sensor, health data and plant growth. The search string was built to surface where agrochemical and plant-breeding assignees describe their inventions using record-keeping, decision-support or sensing language, rather than pure chemistry or genetics claims alone. Coverage runs from 2015 through the 2026-08-31 cut-off, with the most recent one to two years understated because publication typically lags filing by roughly eighteen months.
The picture that emerges is a mature, concentrated field: a handful of agrochemical and seed-genetics incumbents hold a large share of the ranked assignee list, filing activity has receded from a 2019 peak, and the IPC composition still leans heavily toward biocide, breeding and microorganism classes rather than sensing or data-management ones. That gap between the search terms used and the classes actually populated is itself useful signal for where new claims might sit.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 39,023 records: how filing volume moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density today.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings rose to a peak of 1,542 in 2019, then eased; the last complete year on record, 2024, sits at 892 — a -31% move from 2021's 1,292. Treat 2025 and 2026 as incomplete rather than as evidence of continued decline.
IPC subclass composition
A01N (biocides/agrochemicals) and A01H (plant breeding) each cover roughly a fifth of all records, with C12N (microorganisms and genetic engineering) close behind at 15.7%. Sensing- and measurement-adjacent classes such as C12Q sit far smaller at 4.0%, and classes can overlap on a single record so shares sum above 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 39,023 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Soil & Plant Health Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about soil & plant health patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in this field
US20170356002A1 — Methods for promoting plant health using free enzymes and microorganisms that overexpress enzymes
Methods for stimulating plant growth and promoting plant health using free enzymes or recombinant microorganisms that overexpress enzymes are provided, alongside seed coatings and fertilizer compositions built on the same enzyme or microorganism platform, including modified enzymes with ACC deaminase activity.Filed by Spogen Biotech, published 2017-12-14.
View full record| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2007024782A2 | Compositions providing tolerance to multiple herbicides and methods of use thereof | 1,506 |
| 2 | US8207092B2 | Methods and compositions for improving plant health | 1,097 |
| 3 | US8754011B2 | Methods and compositions for improving plant health | 1,066 |
| 4 | WO2011066384A1 | AAD-12 event 416, related transgenic soybean lines, and event-specific identification thereof | 972 |
| 5 | US9062324B2 | Herbicide tolerant soybean plants and methods for identifying same | 635 |
| 6 | WO2013092224A1 | Use of strobilurin type compounds for combating phytopathogenic fungi resistant to qo inhibitors | 564 |
| 7 | US9683242B2 | Herbicide tolerant soybean plants and methods for identifying same | 553 |
| 8 | US20090137395A1 | Maize event DP-098140-6 and compositions and methods for the identification and/or detection thereof | 492 |
| 9 | WO2017029179A1 | Triazole derivatives, intermediates thereof and their use as fungicides | 487 |
| 10 | WO2011151146A1 | Method of crop enhancement | 472 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings; read them as a signal of influence within this dataset, not as a measure of current commercial importance.
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Three patterns stand out once concentration, timing and classification are read together.
The top of the field is occupied, not open
The five leading assignees combined account for 15,830 of the 39,023 records in scope, and the top ten push that to 48.7%. A new entrant filing on herbicide-tolerance or transgenic-event claims is filing directly into ground already covered by incumbents, not into empty space.
Volume has receded from its 2019 peak
Filing peaked at 1,542 records in 2019 and had fallen to 892 by 2024, the last year that can be treated as complete. The 2025-2026 figures in the raw trend look lower still, but that is a publication-lag artefact, not a signal that interest has stopped.
Biocide and breeding claims still dominate
A01N and A01H each cover roughly a fifth of all records, with C12N microorganism claims close behind at 15.7%. Classes tied to sensing, measurement or data (C12Q at 4.0%) are comparatively thin despite the health-data and field-sensor language in the underlying search.
Even the incumbents are filing less this year
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum shows a double-digit percentage drop year over year, from -50% up to -90%. Read this alongside the publication-lag caveat: some of that drop is data still arriving, not a genuine pullback.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to soil & plant health patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the field is thinner
The ranked list of 100 assignees is dominated by agrochemical and seed-genetics majors, with co-filing pairs concentrated among a handful of corporate-affiliate relationships.
One filer sits well ahead of the pack
The top-ranked assignee holds 6,563 records, more than four times the fifth-place total of 1,483. That gap alone explains most of the top-5 concentration figure.
Co-assignee filing is corporate, not collaborative
The strongest co-assignee pair recurs 119 times and links two affiliated entities under the same corporate parent, a pattern repeated in the other top pairs. This looks like internal filing structure rather than cross-company research partnership.
The list thins fast past the top ten
Tenth place holds 374 records against the leader's 6,563 — a steep drop-off that leaves most of the ranked 100 as smaller, single-digit-share filers rather than a broad plateau of comparable competitors.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Monsanto Technology LLC | 3 | -73% |
| Bayer AG | 2 | -86% |
| Syngenta Crop Protection AG | 2 | -86% |
| Spogen Biotech Inc | 2 | -90% |
| Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc | 1 | -88% |
| Bayer CropScience LP | 1 | -50% |
| BASF SE | 0 | -100% |
| Novozymes BioAg | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, portfolio benchmarking or identifying open claim space.
Check freedom-to-operate against the most-cited records
The highly cited herbicide-tolerance and transgenic-event families carry the most citation weight in this corpus and are worth clearing first before drafting claims in the same area.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaTrack the incumbents' recent filing pullback
Every major assignee shows a year-over-year drop in the latest period; watching whether that continues past the publication-lag window will tell you if the field is genuinely cooling or just under-reported.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaDraft around the thinner sensing and data classes
C12Q and sensor-linked claims sit far below the biocide and breeding classes in density, which is where a first claim has more room to stand apart from prior art.
Explore white space in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
The ranked assignee list contains 100 companies, and it is heavily front-loaded: the leading assignee alone holds 6,563 records, while the top five combined account for 15,830 records, or 40.6% of all 39,023 records in scope. Past the top ten, whose combined share reaches 48.7%, the list thins quickly into a long tail of smaller filers. This pattern is typical of agrochemical and seed-genetics fields where a few multinational incumbents have filed for decades, so new entrants should expect to design around occupied ground rather than find an open field.
Filing peaked at 1,542 records in 2019 and had fallen to 892 by 2024, a -31% change from 2021's 1,292 — the last span that can be read as a complete-year comparison. Figures for 2025 and 2026 look lower still, but publication typically lags filing by around eighteen months, so those recent years are undercounted rather than genuinely lower. The honest read is a field that has cooled from a 2019 high, not one in freefall.
Biocide and agrochemical claims under IPC class A01N cover 21.5% of all 39,023 records, closely followed by plant breeding under A01H at 19.8% and microorganism or genetic-engineering claims under C12N at 15.7%. Pesticide-activity, heterocyclic-compound, horticulture, fertiliser-mixture and enzyme/DNA-testing classes each cover smaller single-digit shares. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares add up to more than 100%, and they show where claim density sits rather than where the market is largest.
Classes tied to sensing, data workflows and decision support are comparatively thin next to the core chemistry and genetics classes — C12Q, covering enzyme and DNA-based measuring and testing, sits at just 4.0% of records despite the field-sensor and health-data terms built into this search. Sub-areas such as field-sensor-linked fertiliser dosing, soil health data workflows and enzyme-based seed coating platforms show up in the search terms but not in dense IPC filing, which suggests room for a differentiated first claim. Any white-space read should be paired with a freedom-to-operate check against the most-cited records in the same branch.
Ownership is concentrated at the top and long-tailed below it: the five leading assignees hold 40.6% of all 39,023 records, and the ten leading assignees hold 48.7%. The gap between the leader's 6,563 records and the tenth-place assignee's 374 is steep, meaning most of the ranked 100 companies each hold a small slice of the remaining volume. Co-assignee filing patterns also point to concentration, since the strongest co-filing pairs link affiliated entities within the same corporate group rather than independent collaborators.
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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.