Research and Development Perspectives of Transgenic Cotton: Evidence from Patent Landscape Studies

Rapid developments of technological tools in the development of transgenic cotton harbouring the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) gene for conferring resistance to bollworm have played a major role in ushering an agri-biotechnology revolution at the global level and more so in Southeast Asian countries like India and China. The unprecedented increase in the use of these technologies and major investments by technology providers through strategic alliances or through agreements has brought the tools into a developing country like India. The objective of the present study is to assess patenting trends of this revolutionary technology in agriculture and its role in commercialization of the crop. Patent landscape analysis was deployed to map bibliographic patterns such as publication and priority year, country, assignees and technological analysis of major research areas with applications in technology development. The study illustrates the crowded domain of technology providers and the need to build strategic partnership platforms for effective use of the products.