Two analytical technologies for the agro-food sector have now received European patent recognition – news that arrives only a few months after a report listed INESC TEC as one of the main national drivers of European patent filings.
The INESC TEC European patent family has expanded once again; two analytical technologies based on spectroscopy have been granted patents, bringing the total number of European patents held by INESC TEC to 14.
A portable, non-invasive tool that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to diagnose the internal structure of plants in real time (SPECTOM), and a solution that resorts to AI systems to categorise chemical compounds from the spectral information of complex samples (BB-SPECTRAL), now join the Institute’s portfolio of protected technologies.
INESC TEC leads national activity in patent-based invention protection. This year alone, eight patents have already been granted. The European Patent Office (EPO) recently published a study developed by the Patent Observatory and the EPO in cooperation with Fraunhofer ISI, placing Portugal in the European top 20 for patents. Portugal ranks 16th among 39 countries. Since 2017, INESC TEC has consistently appeared in the national top 10 featured in this annual report.
With the granting of these two European patents, INESC TEC marks “a critical point of patent fencing in spectroscopy-based analytical technologies”, explained researcher Rui Martins. In the case of SPECTOM, protection also extends to a patent application currently under examination in the United States. BB-SPECTRAL, which already held a granted patent in Japan, now benefits from European protection as well.
National recognition is already a reality: the SpecTOM project, born from a partnership between INESC TEC and the University of Porto, was one of the winners of BIP PROOF 20/21, receiving €10K in funding for a proof of concept.
Developed by Rui Martins, Mário Cunha and Bruno Santos (with support from the Technology Licensing Service – SAL), the project advanced spectroscopy techniques to visualise the internal structure of plants and quantify the composition of different tissues in real time. By measuring key metabolites, it becomes possible to make highly accurate diagnoses about the state or progression of diseases and internal lesions, as well as responses to treatments.
The BB-SPECTRAL technology has been recognised in two areas of application: as a finalist for the EARTO Innovation Award – Impact Expected, through the MyNPK project, which categorises chemical compounds in samples (without reagents) with an accuracy similar to laboratory results for critical parameters; and by winning the Prémio de Empreendedorismo e Inovação Crédito Agrícola, in the Food Safety category, thanks to the Pocket Vet project – which enables on-site analysis of blood and milk and the early detection of bovine mastitis.
“As a way of explaining the spectral data extracted from samples, one could say that BB-SPECTRAL is unique in defining its own knowledge base, indicating in advance the predictability, accuracy and precision of new assessments,” as stated in the description of the technology.
INESC TEC patents have been cited by major companies worldwide; among the most notable citations are those in the United States and China, including key-area patents from companies such as Sony, X-Dev (Google) and Huawei.
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