Global Patents Dominated By Japanese Brewers

A review of the role played by innovation in the growth of craft beers and functional beverages has examined patents filed in relation to beer brewing in the past five years. It is interesting to note that, of around 200 patents isolated, the four major Japanese brewers (Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo and Suntory) accounted for 123. Other companies with 10 patents or more each were AB-InBev and DuPont. According to the World Intellectual Property Organisation, more than 2.5m patent applications are filed each year and it is estimated that 80% of the information in patents is not published elsewhere. Thus, published patents represent the largest single source of freely available technological information.