Nebraska - Agricultural Technology Patenting
Agriculture touches about one in every four jobs in Nebraska and the state is a national leader in the production of soybeans, wheat, dry edible beans, pork, grain sorghum, popcorn, and eggs. Agricultural technology (Ag-Tech) development has had a historic underpinning with Nebraska’s leadership in the area; yet most of the development of technology has traditionally been consolidated with a few major companies in the region in a few sub-categories of technological specialization. Given the infusion of technology and AI into all aspects of life and business, Nebraska (and other areas in the Midwest) may be ripe for an Ag-Tech boon into all the areas of the agricultural market. Ag-Tech is a vast market segment that permeates horizontally through our daily lives. Some technologies in the Ag-Tech field can be associated with the following categories:
Image courtesy of Burlington Capital Ag-Venture Fund
Our patent attorneys and agents at ADVENT were interested in how this market has been advanced through patents in Nebraska over the last 10 years (2012-2022). To understand this patent landscape, we searched the U.S. patent databases for any filed patents or issued patents over the last 10 years that had either one Nebraska inventor or one Nebraska assignee. We then reviewed the patent filings to determine their relevancy for agriculture technology or farm tech by filtering the search with terms that are typically related to the agricultural industry.
The below chart shows annual patent application trend for Ag-Tech technologies in Nebraska over the 10-year period.
This chart shows the number of patent grants resulting from applications filed in the same year. Over this period, there were 2624 patent filings covering agriculture technology. This chart is helpful for understanding the rate of applications over a period of time. The grant rate is useful to understand the date from which the Ag-Tech technology protection is established and the rate of successful applications over the 10-year period. Blue represents the application trend and green represents the trend of granted patents resulting from applications of the same year.
As can be seen from the representation, Nebraska had a spike in Ag-Tech patent application filings in 2015. From 2018 to 2022, the application filings have steadily declined in Nebraska. This decline is likely a combination of slowing research and development from the COVID-19 pandemic along with the lag in publications of applications (e.g., it takes about 18-months for filed applications to publish) related to Ag-Tech innovation. When these applications publish, we would expect to the volumes in 2021 and 2022 to increase. Overall, the Ag-Tech patent filing in Nebraska has ranged between about 200 and 300 filings (U.S. and international) on a yearly basis from the 2012- 2022 time period.
The below chart shows the geographic coverage of where patent applications have been filed. This gives an indication of the targeted geographic markets in the Ag-Tech space and can be indicative of where the technology is most prominent and commercialized.
Unsurprisingly, the top jurisdiction for Ag-Tech patent application filings from Nebraska is the United States. Other jurisdictions where there has been significant interest over the last 10 years include Europe, Canada, Australia, China, and Brazil. This breakdown is likely expected give their agricultural focus, population, general economy, and legal environment.
The below chart represents the top agriculture technology companies with the largest Ag-Tech patent portfolios.
As can be seen, the top filers in the Ag-Tech space in Nebraska over the last 10 years are Valmont Industries, The Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska, Lindsay Corporation, and Dow Agrosciences, LLC. Inventor Thomas Korus from Lindsay Corporation is listed as an inventor with the most patent filings in the Ag-Tech Space. The companies above are the heaviest patent filers in Nebraska. We also considered many of the small to medium sized companies that have filings in the Ag-Tech space but are not among the 10 largest patent filers. A few of these companies include CLAAS Omaha, RealmFive, Nationwide 5, Behlen, Reinke Manufacturing, Grain Weevil, Rowse Hydraulic Rakes, Global Equipment company, Fremont Beef, Nebraska Irrigation, and Duoelevator Manufacturing.
This chart below shows the geographic distribution of top patent assignees. Most of the top Ag-Tech companies file in all of the major jurisdictions for patenting, including the United States, Europe, Australia, Canada, Brazil, China and New Zealand. Only DTN, LLC and Schaffert Manufacturing limit their filings to the United States.
The cell diagram below shows the keywords and phrases of the records owned by the top current agriculture technology patent assignees in Nebraska. The diagram depicts concepts within Ag-tech and the assignees that are working on those concepts and helps differentiate the technological Ag-tech focus of each of the top current assignees. The relative coverage is represented by the number of cells under each assignee, with each cell representing the same number of patents.
Plant genetics covers a large portion of the cell diagram and mainly represent contributions from the University of Nebraska and Dow Agrosciences. There are also several cells that represent pesticides and insect growth regulators. The main contribution of these cells comes from Sergeants Pet Care, which arguably may not be considered Ag-Tech depending on the scope of the term. Unsurprisingly, there is also significant filings associated with irrigations systems with the main contributors being Valmont Industries and Lindsay Corporation.
Apart from the top filers in the Ag-Tech space, several of the small to medium filers are also developing interesting and new agriculture technologies. We reviewed the several companies with Ag-Tech patent filings that were not part of the top listed companies and then include:
CLAAS OMAHA – Located in Omaha and having patent filings related to balers and other harvesting equipment.
REALMFIVE – Located in Lincoln and having patent filings related to sensor systems, agricultural automation and agricultural analytics.
NATIONWIDE 5 – Located in Ord and having patent filings related to the production of animal feed and equipment for grain processing.
BEHLEN – Located in Columbus and having patent filings related to agricultural storage and fencing systems.
REINKE MANUFACTURING – Located in Deshler and having patent filings related to irrigation systems and irrigation control.
GRAIN WEEVIL – Located in Aurora and having patent filings related to robots for leveling and inspecting grain stored in grain bins.
ROWSE HYDRAULIC RAKES - Located in Burwell and having patent filings associated with Hay rake assemblies.
GLOBAL EQUIPMENT COMPANY – Located in Norfolk and having patent filings associated with portable feed mills and fencing.
FREMONT BEEF – Located in Fremont and having patent filings related to processing equipment for extending the shelf life of beef and other food products.
NEBRASKA IRRIGATION – Located in Columbus and having patent filings associated with couplings for irrigation systems
DUOELEVATOR – Located in Columbus with patent filings related to soil samplers, hoppers and transport trailers for farm equipment.
Overall, most of the patent filings in the Ag-Tech space over the last ten years have been consolidated with a few large companies and are heavily attributed to irrigation and biosciences associated with agriculture. We believe this landscape may change in the future as the agricultural industry in Nebraska sows the advances in robotics, automation, artificial intelligence, and predictive analytics. We are already seeing the inputs of these changes as companies such as Grain Weevil explore robotics in the agricultural space. These developments can be further cultivated as companies such as Burlington Capital and Invest Nebraska infuse capital into early-stage companies through their Ag-Venture fund. Through this cultivation in Nebraska, we expect to see that new companies will sprout up to sow the fields of innovation with patent filings in a variety of sub-categories in Ag-Tech.
ADVENT is a full-service intellectual property law firm headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska and having a global client base. We focus on Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Technology and IP related agreements, and Innovation Analytics for a vast array of businesses ranging from individual inventors to Fortune 500 companies.