South Korea’s CJ Group and Japan’s Nissui Corp. filed the most patent applications by fish and seafood companies in the year to the end of June.

Food-to-media conglomerate CJ lodged 12 applications in the period, analysis of patent activity in the sector shows.

Tokyo-based Nissui Corp. made nine applications, GlobalData, Just Food’s parent, said.

Sandwiched between the two seafood companies was a Chinese university – Jiangnan University – with 11.

GlobalData’s Patent Analytics database contains global figures on the patents filed – and granted – by businesses across multiple sectors. Each patent is classified by theme, including those linked to areas such as the environment or health and wellness.

Health and wellness remained the most common theme of patent applications lodged in the sector in the 12 months to the end of June this year, with 355 requests filed.

During the year to the end of June 2022, 515 applications were made related to health and wellness.

Overall, the number of patent applications covering fish and seafood is down year on year.

Between 1 July 2021 and 30 June 2022, some 1,709 applications were lodged, GlobalData said.

In the corresponding period a year later, that number dropped to 1,395, the research and intelligence group said.

China topped the list geographically in both periods under review.

Our signals coverage is powered by GlobalData’s Thematic Engine, which tags millions of data items across six alternative datasets — patents, jobs, deals, company filings, social media mentions and news — to themes, sectors and companies. These signals enhance our predictive capabilities, helping us to identify the most disruptive threats across each of the sectors we cover and the companies best placed to succeed.