The UK and EU have committed to reaching net zero by 2050. Several initiatives have been established to help meet this goal. One such initiative is devoted to growing the bioeconomy.
What is the bioeconomy?
The bioeconomy is an economy based on using renewable biological resources such as crops, forests, fish, animals, and micro-organisms to produce food, textiles, bio-based products and/or bioenergy. The bioeconomy aims to harness the power of bioscience and biotechnology to reduce our dependence on finite fossil fuels, to prevent loss in biodiversity and to create new economic growth and jobs.
Innovations for bioeconomy
The bioeconomy aims to promote innovations in various sectors such as food, bio-based and/or biodegradable materials, and biofuels. Several European and UK-based companies are making strides in these sectors by turning renewable sources into sustainable products that can be used worldwide.
For example, a UK-based sustainable-packing company is aiming to replace traditional petroleum plastic with an innovative natural material derived from seaweed. Their product provides a compositable biopolymer material derived from seaweed, and other naturally and substantially sourced additives, with the potential to replace single-use plastic.
Another UK-based company is hoping to minimise the environmental impact of industrial dyes in the textile and fabric industry by replacing harsh chemicals with genetically engineered pigment-producing microorganisms. These engineered microorganisms are grown to produce dye which can simply be added to existing dye machines. No additional specialist equipment or toxic chemicals required!
Even a well-established European company is switching up their products in the name of sustainability, by recently developing tyres made of materials from at least 50 % bio-based and recycled origin.
The bioeconomy and IP
Intellectual property plays an essential role in safeguarding innovation in this sector. Ensuring adequate protection of IP rights through patents and, in some cases, designs incentivises and allows companies to grow and develop new technologies to support the bioeconomy.
This is evident by a recent which found Further, this report looked at the UKIPO’s green channel, which allows for accelerated prosecution of technologies with environmental benefit, and found over 4000 patent applications are using it. Several other patent offices around the world have implemented similar schemes to encourage the development of green technology.
Please get in touch with your usual Forresters contact for advice on patent protection and /or designs within the bioeconomy sector.
