Patent landscape: Technology development behind science in the flavor and fragrances (F&F) area

This paper presents a panorama of the flavor and fragrance (F&F) technological sector, constructed with the use of patent applications worldwide. Information from patent documents was retrieved using databases, yielding 5474 documents related to 2903 patent families for the last 10 years. The information within these documents goes far beyond a mere technical description of technologies. They include data regarding the assignee, year of application, countries where the patents have been applied, the technical sector of technologies and other aspects. These data were grouped by category to determine the actual reality of F&F technologies. The panorama obtained with the patent data showed some curious results. Crossing data regarding patents and markets, it is clear that the largest companies not always are those that apply for the most patents. In this work, the correlation between innovation and the production of patents is discussed. Inside the patent landscape, a specific group of patents has been analyzed. The 416 triadic patents found generated an island within the original landscape with its own environment. This environment and some trends and facts regarding triadic patents are discussed.