The Landscape of Green Agricultural Patents: A Focus on China and US Patent Offices

by Yongjie Ji and Jingbo Cui

Green agricultural patents are essential for driving agricultural productivity while enhancing sustainability, resource efficiency, and climate resilience, and for addressing critical challenges such as soil degradation, water scarcity, and greenhouse gas emissions. In 2013, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) launched the WIPO GREEN initiative to facilitate green technology innovation and transfer. 

Based on the International Patent Classification (IPC), a standardized framework for categorizing technological fields, green patents are grouped into several categories, including farming and forestry. We focus specifically on green agricultural patents, excluding forestry-related innovations from the farming and forestry category. We examine the number of granted green agricultural patents, the leading countries driving innovation, and the key inventors shaping the field from 1990 to the present, with a particular focus on the patent landscapes of China and the United States, as they are both dominant players in global agricultural trade and major contributors to agricultural innovation.  

The patent analysis is conducted using the Lens platform (www.lens.org), a comprehensive open-access database that integrates global patent and scholarly data. Lens enables advanced patent landscape analysis, including tracking innovation trends, identifying key inventors, analyzing patent families, and linking patents to research publications, making it a powerful tool for evaluating the development and impact of green agricultural technologies.¹ We used the International Patent Classifications (IPCs) under the green agricultural patents category to query granted patents from 1990 to 2024, forming the basis of our analysis.

US leads in high-value green agricultural patents, while China dominates in total grants

Trend of granted green agricultural patents

Figure 1 illustrates the number of granted green agricultural patents across different jurisdictions from 1990 to 2024, with highlights on IP5 (USA, China, European Patent Office, Japan, and Korea).² The trends reveal key shifts in global green agricultural innovation over the past three decades. The United States led in granted green agricultural patents throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, with a relatively stable number of patents per year (1,000–3,000). However, after 2012, US patent grants started to decline from the 2015 peak. In contrast, China's green agricultural patenting activity remained relatively low until the mid-2000s; however, it started increasing sharply around 2010. By 2014, China had surpassed the United States in the number of granted patents, marking a shift in global agricultural innovation leadership. The most striking trend is the dramatic rise in China’s patent grants after 2020, peaking at over 6,000 patents per year—far exceeding other jurisdictions.

Trend of high-value granted green agricultural patents

Figure 2 shows the trend of granted high-value green agricultural patents across different jurisdictions over the same period. A high-value patent is defined as one that has also been applied for in other jurisdictions, based on the information recorded under “Extended Family Member Jurisdictions” in the Lens patent database. The underlying assumption is that a patent must possess significant commercial value for applicants to seek intellectual property protection in multiple jurisdictions. Since international patent filings involve substantial costs and legal complexities, only innovations with strong market potential, broad applicability, or strategic importance are typically pursued in multiple regions. Therefore, tracking these patents provides insights into the most commercially promising and globally relevant green agricultural technologies.

Patents from the US Patent Office have consistently dominated the landscape of high-value green agricultural patents, reaching a peak in 2014. However, since then, the gap between the United States and the other four IP5 offices has gradually narrowed. The competition for second place has shifted over time, with the European Patent Office (EP) maintaining the position until the early 2000s, with Japan briefly overtaking second place during the mid-2000s. In the 2010s, EP regained its standing; however, in recent years, China has taken second place, reflecting its growing influence in green agricultural innovation. Table 1 shows the top 10 patent applicants in US and China Patent offices.

Corporations lead in the United States, while public entities lead in China

International conglomerates as key players in both the United States and China

One of the most striking patterns in green agricultural patenting is the significant presence of international conglomerates in both the United States and China. Companies such as Bayer, BASF, Syngenta, and Sumitomo Chemical Co. appear among the top patent applicants in both countries, reflecting their global influence in agricultural innovation. These multinational corporations have well-established R&D networks and file patents across multiple jurisdictions to protect their technologies in key markets. Their dominance in both the United States and China suggests that green agricultural innovation is highly globalized, with major firms patenting in multiple markets to maximize commercialization potential. 

Public sector dominance among leading green agricultural patent applicants in China  

In the top 10 patent applicants list, US Department of Agriculture is the only public US entity (ninth place), while in China, six public entities—five universities and one government-funded research institute—were among the top applicants. This over-representation of universities in the patenting landscape is not limited to agriculture-related patents. Compared with their counterparts in other countries, Chinese universities are more active in patenting. For example, university-held patents in China surpassed those in Korea, Japan, and the Untied States in the early 2000s (Luan, Zhou, and Liu 2010). The surprisingly elevated patenting activities from Chinese universities raised the “patent bubble” (i.e., trading patent quantity with low quality) concerns among researchers. A recent study on general patents held by Chinese universities suggests that university-affiliated patents in recent decades may exhibit lower qualities in terms of forward citation and patent licensing fee (Lin, Ding, and Chen 2024). Whether Chinese pubic institutions will continue their leading roles in patenting activities in the near future remains uncertain. An improvement in the quality of university-held patents or a greater role for corporate entities in green agricultural patenting could enhance both agricultural productivity and environmental sustainability, ensuring that innovations translate into real-world impact. 

The landscape of green agricultural patents highlights distinct innovation models in China and the United States. While the United States has historically led in high-value patents, China has surged ahead in total grants, driven by public-sector institutions, particularly universities. International conglomerates remain key players in both countries, reflecting the globalized nature of agricultural innovation. In the future, whether China can transition to an innovation model more like the United States’, with greater corporate involvement and a stronger focus on high-value patents, deserves close attention. Such a shift could enhance the commercialization and global impact of its green agricultural innovations, shaping the future of sustainable farming and environmental technology.

Footnotes

[1] If interested, please email yongjiej@iastate.edu for the specific query. 
[2] According to fiveipoffices.org, the IP5 offices together handle around 90% of global patent applications (IP5 2025).

References

IP5. 2025. "About us." https://www.fiveipoffices.org/about. Accessed on February 26, 2025.
Lin, F., W.W. Ding, and S. Chen. 2024. "The Patent Gold Rush? An Empirical Study of Patent Bubbles in Chinese Universities (1990–2019)." The Journal of Technology Transfer 1-31. 
Luan, C., C. Zhou, and A. Liu. 2010. "Patent Strategy in Chinese Universities: A Comparative Perspective." Scientometrics 84(1):53-63.

Suggested citation

Ji, Y., and J. Cui. 2025. "The Landscape of Green Agricultural Patents: A Focus on China and US Patent Offices." Agricultural Policy Review, Winter 2025. Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, Iowa State University. https://agpolicyreview.card.iastate.edu/landscape-green-agricultural-patents-focus-china-and-us-patent-offices/.