Beyond Meat has more than 15 patents. Eat Just has at least 10. Intellectual property isn’t the only asset an alt-meat maker needs, but it is the first building block to a company.
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Think you’ve had the next big alt-meat idea? Hope you’re prepared to protect it! These Edison electric light bulbs are from an 1890 court case where Thomas Edison had to defend his patent on the bulb design. (He eventually won.)
In 2023, one company — Impossible Foods — held more than half of the plant-based meat-related patents in both the U.S. and the EU, according to a Stanford University investigation.
This begs the question: What does Impossible know that hundreds of other plant-based alt-meat companies seem to have missed when it comes to intellectual property rights?
In such a collaborative sector, it seems somewhat counterintuitive to ruthlessly patent ideas, processes and inventions that could…