Biodiversity and registered patents in Brazil: What are the patterns?

Forest restoration is crucial to mitigate human impacts on climate, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. However, it is still monetarily non-competitive due to high costs and low economic returns, urging attractive alternatives. Non-timber forest products with a high economic value could provide a way forward, requiring knowledge of options and native species' potential. To summarize scientific knowledge about species potential, challenges, and opportunities, we conducted a forest inventory of regenerating forests in the southeast Atlantic Forest, Brazil. We surveyed the proportion of species patented by companies, identified registered patent patterns, and analyzed the reasons. 

We surveyed the Brazilian National Institute of Industrial Property — INPI, the top 30 companies with the most patent registrations for biodiversity products or processes in the pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and crop care segments to gain insight into the potential of the native species sampled compared with those that have been registered in our other database (10.5281/zenodo.7826787). We chose companies based on their representativity in the number of patents on the use of biodiversity in each market segment. Next, we build a list of natural ingredients to determine the proportion of Atlantic Forest native tree species used regarding its biotechnological potential. We do not consider natural products or ingredients derived from minerals, sand, clay, fungi, or bacteria. Similarly, we do not consider those isolated from fatty acids or essential oils unless accompanied by a clear species description. Instead, we consider plants like herbs, shrubs, trees, and palm species and their fruits, roots, bark, leaves, branches, wood, seeds, oils, and resin processing to identify proportions between them.