Patent landscape analysis of seaweed-based biofertilizers

Seaweeds have been utilized by mankind for several hundreds of years, for the cosmetic applications, for the food industry, as a feed for livestock, or as food directly, and for medicinal purposes by extraction of compounds with antiviral, antibacterial, or antitumor activity. In addition, as a possible renewable raw material for biorefining applications, seaweeds have attracted attention for the production of a variety of biofuels, such as bioethanol and biogas, especially because they contain a lot of carbohydrates. With the rapid development of this seaweed industry, a mass of waste release into the environment leads to very serious pollution problems. Nowadays, this waste is used to produce agriculture biofertilizers in commercial scale. The production of biofertilizers from seaweeds sources has been reported using several experimental conditions in laboratory scale by using enzymes such as cellulases and xylanases. These enzymes degrade seaweed processing waste to low molecular fragments, which can be easily absorbed by plants as biofertilizer.

This work is based on the patents analysis which is a family of techniques and tools for studying the information present within and attached to patents, a major form of intellectual property. It will be divided into three parts: (i) The first part reviews the state of the art by introducing what has been patented in relation to seaweed-based biofertilizers. (ii) The second part provides a detailed analysis of the patentability of formulations and process. (iii) The third part explores the alternatives to patents as a means for incentivising innovation as well as benefit sharing of the results and applications of scientific research. Finally, in the form of conclusions, a portfolio approach is proposed for effective innovation and fair dissemination of information concerning the formulation of biofertilizers based on algae for the benefit of agriculture.