AgTech, advanced technology for farming and agricultural processes, continues to be an area of significant research and development, with computer-implemented innovations playing a pivotal role in enhancing efficiency, productivity and sustainability in agriculture. We at FPA Patent Attorneys have significant expertise in AgTech and have been keenly following the latest developments in this area.
Previously we looked at image processing in agricultural technology. See also our earlier article on innovation and patents in the world of AgTech. Here, we explore patent activity particularly in relation to computer-implemented agriculture, including digital twins, artificial intelligence (AI) and “internet of things” (IoT) networked sensors and systems.
Digital twins were originally applied in the aerospace and precision manufacturing industries and, as the name suggests, relate to virtual models that mirror physical systems to monitor, simulate and optimise real world processes. Digital twins integrated with distributed IoT sensors and powered by AI and machine learning models are emerging as powerful tools to enable and support smart farming and precision agriculture, with the aim of optimising processes, increasing efficiency and yields, and integrating more seamlessly with other systems utilised in the agriculture industry.
Patent trends
Advancements in data acquisition and data processing techniques and their development and application in the agriculture industry has driven a surge in patent applications for such inventions over the last decade, approximately 5,300 patent applications across 3,900 patent families, as illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1 illustrates the year-on-year number of unique patent applications filed worldwide relating to computer-implemented agriculture inventions, based on International Patent Classification (IPC) codes. In particular, the applications are classified as relating to both agriculture (A01) and computer models and simulations, machine learning, AI, or IoT (e.g., G05B13/04, G05B17, G06N, or G16Y).
Because patents are generally not published until 18 months after their original filing date, the total application numbers for 2023 and 2024 are incomplete. Based on the trend in filings and related data, forecasting indicates continuing patent growth in this technology area.
The technology landscape of computer-implemented agriculture
Analysis of 5,000 relevant patent applications revealed a broad landscape for computer-implemented agriculture inventions. The applications spanned a wide range of precision agriculture, smart farming, and digital agriculture technologies with specific applications including smart irrigation systems, pest detection, animal monitoring, individual animal profiling, farm mapping, and crop yield predictions.
The landscape illustrated in Figure 2 depicts patent applications as dots on a topographic map, with different fields indicating technology areas and the contour lines and heights indicating patent activity concentration. The groupings are based on subject matter clustering and keywords. Similarities and overlaps in underlying technologies are indicated by proximity and the adjacency of the fields.
Figure 2 illustrates the patent landscape for computer-implemented agriculture inventions
As the landscape illustrates, these patent applications focus on a number of core technology areas, including:
- Deep learning and edge computing with management devices and calculation units (distributed sensors and computer systems) for smart farms.
- Smart farming, smart irrigation, and datum analytics for crop health and management.
- IoT sensors, including use in smart farms and related control systems.
Building from these core areas, around the edges of the landscape are technologies concerning more specific applications of computer technology in agriculture, including:
- Image acquisition and processing, methods for detecting fruit, detecting insect pests, and pest-repelling including laser bird repelling.
- Animal behaviour monitoring and communication systems for detecting and alerting abnormal behaviour and symptoms.
- Analysing biological samples, event monitoring, and modelling of animal subjects (e.g., pets and companion animals) to generate individual profiles, including for developing food additive formulations.
- Event and subject monitoring and modelling, pair analysis including for pest detection and outcome prediction.
- Analysis and processing based on yield, geographic area and compound libraries, crop and yield prediction.
- Agriculture work machines, localisation and mapping.
- Animal behaviour and growth monitoring, device and sensor assignment to animals.
- Plant cultivation systems and devices, smart plants, lighting and irrigation devices.
- Intelligent irrigation systems with agricultural internet of things sensors, water pump and water storage tank control.
Notable patent applicants
The organisations filing patents to computer-implemented agriculture inventions include a number of major industry players, such as:
- Deere & Co (John Deere): the agricultural equipment manufacturer has developed its own digital twin platform called “John Deere Operations Center” which integrates data from mobile sensor suites with computational capabilities, integrating advanced GPS and IoT technologies into sensors on farm machinery.
- Climate LLC (a subsidiary of Bayer): focuses on digital farming solutions, including a digital farming platform called “Climate FieldView” which creates virtual models of fields and crops to support data-driven farming decisions.
- Nestec S.A. (a subsidiary of Nestlé): focuses on food technology, developing digital tools to track livestock and fertilizer data, as well as customising animal feed components, including the use of remote data collection and AI.
- International Business Machines (IBM): whilst IBM come more from the computer technology side, the business is also active in the computer-implemented agriculture space, partnering with organisations like Climate LLC to adapt and integrate IoT, AI and digital twins in agriculture applications.
Locally, a number of Australian universities and government agencies are contributors in the computer-implemented agriculture space and related patent activity, as well as a variety of exciting startup organisations, many engaged with niche developments in specific application areas of farming-related computer inventions.
Patentability considerations
Computer-implemented inventions and computer technology that focuses on, or exists solely in, the virtual world can pose challenges for patentability. In general, computer-implemented business schemes in themselves, or the routine automation of an existing task using a generic computer, are not considered patentable subject matter. However, adaptations and improvements to existing technologies which provide particular new functionalities may well render such ideas patentable. The specific requirements vary between different countries and there are some grey areas.
Relevant to AgTech, Australia’s 1959 High Court Decision “NRDC” established that inventions which provide an artificially created state of affairs with a material advantage and a useful physical result in relation to a material or tangible entity can be eligible for patent protection in Australia.1
In NRDC, the subject invention was for a method for ridding crop areas of weeds using an existing chemical not previously known to have herbicidal properties. The invention was challenged as being the mere use of a known substance. Ultimately, the invention was found to be patentable because it provided a real advantage, being more than just a variant of well known methodologies. It was considered additional to the cultivation of the soil per se and seen as providing “an important improvement in the conditions in which the crop is to grow, whereby it is afforded a better opportunity to flourish and yield a good harvest.”
Computers and selective herbicides are clearly different and technology has come a long way since 1959. Yet the decision in NRDC still stands, supporting the position that new uses of existing technologies, for example new and innovative agricultural applications of computer technologies, can be patentable if they provide the required artificially created state of affairs, such as concrete, tangible, physical, or observable effects.
Like the invention in NRDC, many computer-implemented agriculture inventions such as those in smart farming, precision agriculture, digital twins, and IoT-enabled solutions tick the required boxes by providing tangible benefits and useful results which improve conditions in which, for example, a crop is to grow, affording it a better opportunity to flourish and yield a good harvest. However, the specific considerations are complex and nuanced for each case, requiring the guidance of a suitably skilled patent attorney.
Here at FPA Patent Attorneys, we have deep knowledge and experience in these technologies (as well as in other areas of agricultural technology such as biochemistry, plant varieties and agrichemicals). If you are interested in protecting your innovations in this space, please get in touch with our Agribusiness team.
1 National Research Development Corporation v. Commissioner of Patents [1959] HCA 67 at 13, 22 and 25.
