Fungicides took the lead again in April with 34 published patent applications. Insecticides followed with 30 applications and herbicides with 20. There were seven additional patent applications corresponding to fungicide/insecticide combination products.
Agrow Intelligence examined a selection of 91 patent applications published during the month, from a total of 13 companies and organisations.

Bayer CropScience was in the lead again with 28 published patent applications, of which ten were fungicidal, nine insecticidal and four herbicidal in nature, with an additional five related to dual-targeted fungicidal/insecticidal action.
BASF followed with ten fungicide-related, four insecticide-related and three herbicide-related patent applications along with two fungicide/insecticide patent applications. Syngenta and Sumitomo were third in line with a total of 12 patent applications published each and Dow AgroSciences followed with eight patent applications.

Particular activity was noticed this month with six patent applications on fungicidal mixtures of prothioconazole, boscalid, carboxin and/or metrafenone from BASF. Another six patent applications from Sumitomo Chemical were published on a new insecticide composition consisting of two parts, a heterocyclic compound and a pyrethroid compound for the control of arthropod pests. Four patent applications from Bayer were published on a fungicidal/insecticidal composition containing a nitroguanidine derivative.
For the list of patent applications published in March 2011, please click here .

Granted Patents April 2011

There were 18 granted patents published in April 2011. These patents were filed between 2002 and 2010, with the oldest concerning a herbicidal pyrazole derivative from Sagami Chemical Research Center and Kaken Pharmaceutical and the most recent being a composition for the control of nematodes from Divergence (now part of Monsanto).
For the list of granted patents published in March 2011, please click here .