2012
Patent Intelligence on “Coffee” Industry Focus on “Piemonte”
Landscape and explorative analyses based on patent data
IP Finance Institute Corrispondenza
DIGEP, Politecnico di Torino
Indirizzo: V. Boggio, 65/A – 10121 Torino C.so Duca degli Abruzzi 24
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Patent Intelligence on Coffee Industry Focus on Piemonte
Disclaim This document does not represent the point of view of Camera di Commercio di Torino. All the analyses are based on public data retrieved from information sources such as Thomson Innovation and Espacenet for patents and Capital IQ for company details. The interpretations and opinions contained in this study are solely those of the authors.
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Patent Intelligence on Coffee Industry Focus on Piemonte
Executive Summary This document presents the results of the analyses on the “Coffee” sector and in particular on the Italian framework with a specific reference to the activities of the companies located in Piemonte. The main objective is to shed light on the position of the Italian (and in particular those in Piemonte) companies operating in the Coffee industry from the perspective of their patent activities.
The introductory section explains the methodology applied to build the database of companies, source of the statistics shown in the general framework chapter, and the database of patents owned by Italian coffee firms. The description of the process is fundamental to highlight how data have been collected and to understand how it drives the database generation. In order to define the boundaries of the analyses, two different data collections were searched: Capital IQ, which includes mainly listed, U.S.-based companies and served to frame the industry on a global level; Thomson Innovation, a comprehensive collection of patent documents from world patent offices.
The global framework is described relying on the data available in Capital IQ in order to show the main trends on a worldwide level. The total number of companies in the field is still increasing but with a slower and slower pace, suggesting that the industry is mature and even if it has not reached its final configuration of players yet, it might be on the point to. The sample of companies is mostly composed of European firms (44%) and secondary by North American ones (27%). The U.S. ranks first while Italy is at the second place. Among the Italian regions, Lombardia, Emilia Romagna and Veneto account for more than 50% of the firms in Italy, respectively with 33 27 and 18 firms.
On an aggregate level, the population of world companies operating in the Coffee industry includes two types of players: large corporations with subsidiaries and branches operating in several sectors including the Coffee business segment (including market leaders such as Nestlè and Kraft) and firms having Coffee as the most relevant business. Thus identified as “coffee” companies, their business might not only be focused on coffee activities but might relate to different ones: by way of example, firm activities can relate to industrial machinery, collection of vegetable/fruit, roasting or household appliances. However, only a small share (8%) of companies in the sample has such business activities among the primary ones.
The third section examines the results of the specific focus on the Italian innovative companies in the coffee industry. A list of 44 companies: they holds at least one patent filed in any patent office at the beginning of 2012 (data from Thomson Innovation). The sample average number of registered inventions is 29.6 and the sample average patent portfolio size is 109.8. The same values expressed in terms of median are lower (respectively, 5.0 and 24.5) meaning that large part of the sample holds patent portfolios of a small size.
From the analyses on the application and the invention trends in the most recent years, the sample companies show increasing inventive activities (although with a final slowdown). The inventions developed at the beginning of the 2000s were particular valuable to deserve more applications all over the world: the data suggest that the development of inventions related to capsules and cartridges as coffee containers might be correlated to a higher number of geographical extensions, in order to cover more countries due to the possible interchangeability across different coffee machines.
The most relevant markets in terms of innovation-based competition for the sample of Italian companies are the European and the Italian ones: however it is interesting to note the presence of Australia Canada and Portugal among the top 10 positions.
With the aim of identifying possible sub-technology trajectories, we examined the IPC codes assigned to the sample patents. The IPC subclass A47J, which refers to kitchen equipment, reports the largest number of applications and the most significant growth in the time frame. The subclasses B65B and B65D are connected to packaging processes and containers, that is to the delivery of products and to the capsules.
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Patent Intelligence on Coffee Industry Focus on Piemonte
The sample average number of assignees per patent increases through time: it suggests that companies started to collaborate more to develop innovations. Similarly, the number of claims per patent, which increases as well, can be interpreted as a measure of invention complexity.
Among the total 44 Italian innovative companies, 3 are headquartered in Piemonte (6.8% of the sample) and their combined portfolio amounts to 392 (8.1% of the sum of patents owned by Italian sample firms), corresponding to 85 inventions (6.5% on total inventions): the companies are Lavazza, SGL Italia and Caffè Ghigo. Caffè Vergnano holds utility models only.
The comparison among the most relevant companies in the sample of patent owners involves the Piemonte based Lavazza and SGL Italia and three companies located in North Eastern Italy: Illy Caffè, Segafredo Zanetti and Hausbrandt Trieste. The IPC codes assigned to patents serve as a proxy of the technology categories where inventive activities are more concentrated. The most frequent (especially in the recent years) are mainly connected to improvements to coffee-making machines and to innovations in the method to insert coffee powder in the machine, as a means of specific small containers or packages: capsules and cartridges. Such classification distinguishes between coffee-making machine and capsules. SGL Italia holds several patents related to the coffee-making apparatus but no patent for any type of coffee container; on the contrary Segafredo Zanetti appears to develop more innovations focused on the packaging of coffee to be inserted in a corresponding apparatus; finally, data describe Lavazza and Hausbrandt Trieste as those with the largest portfolios protecting the category of coffee containers and packaging.
Thus the industry has reached a certain level of maturity, it is possible to identify innovative trends in specific fields, such as improvements in the coffee-making apparatus and in the development of particular packages and containers (e.g. capsules and cartridges) to deliver coffee.
The collected data points to the importance of Italy in the global framework, not only in terms of number of companies worldwide. Although industry leaders are large multinational enterprises, it is worth reminding that such corporations can gain momentum from cross divisional investments and exploit the spillovers of the R&D outputs from any of their business units. On the contrary, the innovation rates of companies such as the Italian coffee ones, which are generally smaller than global MNE and focus their business activities almost entirely on a single industry, can be considered remarkable.
In the final paragraphs we report some insights on the most relevant Piemonte based companies: data have been retrieved from Thomson Innovation in the first half of 2012.
Lavazza
The inventive activity increased in the domain of the coffee-making apparatus and related components, in particular the IPC codes “A47J 31/36” and “A47J 31/44” (“Coffee-making apparatus in which hot water is passed through the filter under pressure / with hot water under liquid pressure / with mechanical pressure-producing means)”.
The two most cited patents are related to a specific product, “a disposable cartridge for use in a machine”, but functional to a generic beverage: that is the reason why other food and beverage companies developed incremental inventions citing Lavazza’s ones. Thirteen patents owned by Lavazza received at least one citation from other 25 patent owners. Of them, 5 are Italian while the rest are foreign companies (e.g. Kraft, Coca Cola; Illy Caffè).
SGL Italia
From the analysis of the IPC codes it emerges that SGL Italia seems particularly focused on the technologies related to the apparatus for making coffee. However in recent years, data on the inventive activities provide some evidences of a shift to specific sub-components of the coffee-making machine (e.g. “Dispensing spouts, pumps, drain valves or like liquid transporting devices”).
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Patent Intelligence on Coffee Industry Focus on Piemonte
Twenty-five patents owned by SGL Italia received at least one citation from other 44 patent owners and almost half of them are Italian (including Lavazza, Hausbrandt Trieste, Saeco, Bianchi and De Longhi). However the company who cited most SGL Italia’s patents is the global enterprise Nestlè through its subsidiary Nestec.
The two most cited patents describe respectively a “coffee machine” and a “coffee machine for brewing coffee from ground coffee packed in a cartridge”.
Caffè Ghigo
Caffè Ghigo was founded in 1974 in Bra, Cuneo. The company holds several product brands (e.g. DICAF, Rio Negro, SPIC, Op1, etc.) and two Italian patent applications related to a coffee making apparatus which can serve also other beverages.
Caffè Vergnano
Caffè Vergnano’s patent portfolio accounts for ten Italian utility models corresponding to five patent families: such inventions describe, in particular, a coffee-making machine structured with a water container which can be replaced by a common bottle of water.
In the first half of 2012, Caffè Vergnano received a preliminary injunction from Nestlè for infringement of patents connected to coffee capsules and abuse of the trademark Nespresso. Caffè Vergnano’s products on trial are the capsules “Èspresso1882” which report on the packaging that they are compatible with Nespresso machines. The court ruled that Èspresso1882 capsules did not violate any Nespresso patents, despite being compatible with Nespresso machines; however, the court stated that Caffè Vergnano has to change the capsule label to one more specifically explaining which machines made by Nespresso are compatible. The case is not closed since Nestlè went on for a permanent injunction at full trial.
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Patent Intelligence on Coffee Industry Focus on Piemonte
Index Disclaim ...... 2 Executive Summary ...... 3 1 Introduction and methodology ...... 7 1.1 Industry identification and DB generation ...... 7 2 General framework ...... 10 3 Italian innovative companies: patent analytics ...... 12 3.1 Sample statistics ...... 14 3.2 Patent holders in Piemonte...... 17 3.2.1 Lavazza ...... 18 3.2.2 SGL Italia ...... 19 3.2.3 Caffè Ghigo and Caffè Vergnano ...... 20
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Patent Intelligence on Coffee Industry Focus on Piemonte
1 Introduction and methodology This document presents the results of the analyses on a particular industry, the “Coffee” sector and focusses on the Italian framework with a specific reference to the role of the companies located in Piemonte.
The objective of the study is mainly to shed light on the position of the Italian (and especially the Piemonte region) companies operating in the Coffee industry from the perspective of their patent activities.
The analysis of a particular industrial sector is strictly driven by the process implemented during the definition of its specific boundaries. In this case we have a reference sample of companies which represent the target firms we intend to examine: they will drive the investigation and the definition of the sample of analysis. Such reference sample is made of Coffee companies headquartered in the Piemonte region.
The process to include firms in the sample is described in the next figure. Among the population of world companies operating in the Coffee industry, two types of players can be distinguished:
1. Large corporations with subsidiaries and branches operating in several sectors including the Coffee business segment (this group comprises market leaders such as Nestlè and Kraft).
2. Firms having Coffee as the most relevant business.
The focus of the analyses will be on the second group and in particular on those with a specific geographical localization and owners of patents.
Figure 1 Process and methodology applied to include companies in the sample.
Companies in "Coffee" industry
"Coffee" as the most relevant business Large Corp. - "Coffee" as one of the Geographical Companies with patents protecting "Coffee" related inventions business localization segments Focus: Piemonte innovative companies in “coffee” industry
The first phase is the identification of the sample of analysis in order to define the involved companies. Such procedure is fundamental to the subsequent database building stage which will be the subject of the analyses. The starting input for the data collection process is the selection of the “core technology” for each involved company that will be analyzed.
1.1 Industry identification and DB generation In order to define the boundaries of the analyses, two different data collections were searched:
1. Capital IQ (CIQ): source of company data, served to frame the industry (it includes mainly listed, U.S.-based companies).
2. Thomson Innovation (TI): collection of patent documents from world patent offices (POs): patent searches relied on specific procedures to identify spelling variations in the company names, branches and subsidiaries.
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Patent Intelligence on Coffee Industry Focus on Piemonte
In the next paragraphs we will briefly describe all the steps that led to the definition of the sample of analyses.
1. Description of company business: the process started with the screening of the companies in CIQ by selecting the criterion “Coffee” among the industrial sector options1: it resulted in 910 companies (2.2% of them are liquidating or out of business). Among them, 119 have their headquarters (HQ) in Italy and 5 in Piemonte. Additionally to such 5 firms in Piemonte we enriched the sample of analysis with 4 Italian relevant companies in terms of size (as number of employees), namely “Cafe Do Brasil”, “Hausbrandt Trieste 1892”, “Illy Caffè” and "Segafredo Zanetti”.
Figure 2 Process to define companies relevant to the analyses: Coffee companies in Piemonte.
World companies Companies in Piemonte Province in CIQ
Companies in "Coffee" industry Alessi Verbania Cusio Ossola
Casa del Caffe Vergnano Torino
HQ in Italy Costadoro Torino (Focus: Piemonte) Luigi Lavazza Torino
SGL Italia Asti
2. Patent holders: we searched the retrieved names in the patent database (TI) and analyzed their inventions in order to refine the list of companies to those with patents related to coffee production. By way of example, the company “Alessi” is excluded from the resulting list because its main activity is related to household appliances (thus including coffee pots), in particular to the design of kitchenware, and patents assigned to “Alessi” are not related to “Coffee” business as we consider it in reference to companies such as “Lavazza” and “Vergnano”. “Costadoro” is dropped out due to lack of patents in TI. The reference sample of analysis is made of 7 companies: “Vergnano”, “Lavazza”, “SGL Italia”, “Cafe Do Brasil”, “Hausbrandt Trieste 1892”, “Illy Caffè” and "Segafredo Zanetti”.
3. IPC definition and reverse check: we analyzed the patent documents owned by the 7 companies with the aim of identifying the most recurrent IPC codes. A parallel check was made by querying the word “Coffee” in the WIPO IPC database and retrieving the most relevant IPC codes including the exact word or referred to it by connected catchwords. The combination of the two approaches allowed us to define a list of relevant IPC codes2 and then collect patents from all the world POs. The assignees with the largest amount of patents in those IPC codes are Multi National Enterprises (MNE) with several lines of business: coffee is only one of their diversified activities. Since such companies are not comparable to our reference sample of regional firms, very specialized in “Coffee” industry, we decided to exclude them from the analyses and to refine our list of reference companies by adding only the Italian ones found in TI.
1 We checked the business descriptions of a random sample of the results to test the reliability of the selection. 2 See next paragraphs for the whole list. 8
Patent Intelligence on Coffee Industry Focus on Piemonte
Figure 3 Process for reverse check from IPC codes to identify Italian companies in the coffee sector.
Most relevant IPC World companies with patents in the selected IPC codes codes of Vergnano, Lavazza, SGL Italia, Illy Caffè, Hausbrandt, etc. Italian assignees Patents in selected IPC codes: search of top Piemonte assignees
IPC codes companies) Originating (Lavazza, Newly found (e.g.: connected to SGL Italia, ...) Ghigo, ...) "Coffee" from WIPO (global assignees Top
4. Sample definition in the following analyses: summing up the process, we basically aimed at the definition of a list of companies, the reference sample, which includes firms with the following characteristics: HQs in Italy (a special attention will be paid to those in Piemonte) and innovative, that is owners of coffee-related 1 Companies in the patents (a relevant share of their patent portfolios is Coffee industry connected to the Coffee business). (CIQ)
The following figures help identifying the groups 2 5 selected from the different sources and how we 3 Patentees - exploited the information from such DBs. Group 1 is HQ in Italy 4 Coffee related the whole list of companies resulting from CIQ as IPC codes (TI) involved in “Coffee” business: it will help in framing the global picture and general indicators. Group 2 and 3 describe the situation3 of companies with an Italian HQ as a result of the union of CIQ data and of companies identified in TI: 44 Italian innovative companies active in the “coffee” sector represents our final sample of analysis4.
Figure 4 Groups of companies identified through the described process
1 2 3 4 5 selection of top 906 companies 83 companies 33 companies 20 companies foreign assignees
2+3 = Italian framework (116 General Mostly MNE framework companies with CIQ financial data) with multi-line description of business 3+4 = Italian innovative companies 44 patentees Basic stats as (9 owners of other IPRs) reference
3 CIQ provides some financial data. 4 Actual number of patent owners is 44 due to the exclusion of companies with an IPR portfolio of only utility models or US design patents. 9
Patent Intelligence on Coffee Industry Focus on Piemonte
2 General framework The data reported in this section are based on the results of the queries on CIQ. The collected data on 910 companies5 describes the general framework of the Coffee sector worldwide. Starting from 1980, the chart below shows the number of companies per foundation year6 (red line, left axis) and the cumulate value of firms (blue area, right axis).
Even if the trend is decreasing (less and less new firms are Figure 5 Number of companies per year of foundation founded) there are still some new entrants every year. (“Entrants”, left axis) and cumulate value (“Cumul.”, right axis). 20 800 The total number of companies in the field is still 18 700 increasing but with a slower and slower pace, suggesting 16 600 that the industry is concentrated and even if it has not 14 reached its final configuration of players yet, it might be 12 500 on the point to; such stage might be characterized by a 10 400 shake-out of firms, when the number of players will tend 8 300 to reduce by selecting the best performing companies. 6 Cumul. 200 4 Other information available from CIQ deals with the Entrants 2 100 company status, their size and location. Less than 10% of 0 0 the identified companies are listed and more than 2% is 1980 1990 2000 2010 not operating (out of business).
Around one third of the sample is made of companies part of a group and 24 entities report an ultimate parent company headquartered in Italy. The median number of employees for the selected companies is 1307.
Table 1 Main characteristics of the “Coffee” companies Figure 6 Share of companies based on number of employees (retrieved from CIQ8). (Please note that more than 2 thirds of companies report Characteristic Option Amount missing data, likely SMEs).
Number of 910 100% companies 90% Listed companies 76 (8%) 80% 70% Company Type Operating 63% More than 250 60% Subsidiary or Acquired 35% Out of Business 2% 50% 51 - 250 40% 11 - 50 Part of a group 273 (30%) 30% 1 - 10 Group led by an Italian 24 (2%) 20% company 10% Company size Average employees 2.406,1 0%
Employees
The sample of companies is mostly composed of European firms (44%) and secondary by North American ones (27%); Asia and the Pacific region accounts for 17%, Latin America and the Caribbean for 8% and Africa and Middle East for 4%. The next heat map describes the presence of company HQs around the world: a more intense color means a higher number of coffee firms in that country.
5 From CIQ. 6 22% of records do not report such information. 7 The average number of employees for the selected companies is around 2,400. More than two third of records do not report such information. It is likely that they are mainly SMEs so the final average number might be overestimated. 8 There are empty fields for the listed characteristics. 10
Patent Intelligence on Coffee Industry Focus on Piemonte
Figure 7 Heat map: presence of Coffee companies worldwide (data from CIQ).
Focusing on the single countries, the U.S. ranks first9 while Italy is at the second place. As it can be seen in the adjacent chart, the top 5 nations represent more than 50% of the total sample. Focusing on Italy and the regions of companies HQs as reported in CIQ, the following figure shows that Lombardia, Emilia Romagna and Veneto account for more than 50% of the firms in Italy, respectively with 33 27 and 18 firms located inside the region boundaries.
Figure 8 Percentage of companies in the sample (CIQ data) Figure 9 Number of Italian coffee companies broken down by broken down by HQs. region of HQs (CIQ data). Liguria; 2 Abruzzo; 3 Calabria; 2 Friuli Venezia Sicilia; 4 Giulia; 5 United Puglia; 5 Lombardia; States 33 Piemonte; 5 24% Others Toscana; 6 (72) 44% Italy Marche; 7 15% Lazio; 8
Emilia Campania; 8 Romagna; 27 Brazil Germany Japan Spain 5% Veneto; 18 3% 4% 5%
Thus identified as “coffee” companies, the business is not only focused on coffee activities but might relate to different ones, part of the primary sector “Packaged Food and Meat”, represented by circa 92% of the sample. The adjacent figure shows the first ten field of activity in terms of number of companies (each firm is associated to one or more business domains). Moreover, in the coffee domain, there might be different aspects covered by firm activities, such as industrial machinery, collection of vegetable/fruit, roasting or household appliances: only a small share of companies in the sample has such business activities among the primary ones (around 8%).
9 Please note that CIQ collects mostly U.S. based companies and so the value might be overestimated. 11
Patent Intelligence on Coffee Industry Focus on Piemonte
Figure 10 Primary industry of the companies in the coffee Figure 11 Business activities of the firms in the coffee sample sample (CIQ data). (CIQ data). Household Others 0 200 400 600 800 1000 Appl.s 5% Consumer Staples 1% Food, Beverage and Tobacco Industrial Machinery Food Products 2% Packaged Foods and Meats
Coffee
Tea Packaged Foods and Prepared and Preserved Foods Meats Confectionery Products 92% Seasonings and Preservatives
Bread and Bakery Products
3 Italian innovative companies: patent analytics
Patent assignees In this section we will focus on Italy and in particular on (exclusion of design and utility models) companies in Piemonte region. As previously described,
Innovative (own at the process to select the analyzed companies starts from least 1 patent documents) those in the coffee industry; we then take into account only those with HQs in Italy and holding at least one Italy patent.
In this general approach we exclude design and utility Coffee industry models as relevant IPR documents for a company to be considered innovative. Such refinement process determined the exclusion of 2 Italian companies holding one US design patent each (Caffè D'Italia and
Torrefazione Guarany) and 7 firms owning only utility models (Colonia del Caffè, Danesi Caffè., Magazzini del Caffè, Caffè Mokambo, Produzioni Alimentari Caffè Essse, Quick Caffè Espresso; Caffè Vergnano).
Since “Caffè Vergnano” is headquartered in Piemonte, we will provide a more specific analysis even if it holds only utility models.
Below we provide the full list of the 44 companies involved in the analyses with the corresponding amount of patent documents (patent portfolios expressed as count of patent documents) and of single inventions expressed as count of patent families. The sample contains all those firms with at least one patent filed in any patent office and available in TI at the beginning of 2012. For such companies, the average number of registered inventions is 29.6 and the average patent portfolio size is 109.8; the same values expressed in terms of median are lower (respectively, 5.0 and 24.5) meaning that large part of the sample holds patent portfolios of a smaller size.
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Patent Intelligence on Coffee Industry Focus on Piemonte
Table 2 List of Italian companies in the coffee sector holding at least one patent (data from CIQ and TI): for each firm the table reports the whole patent portfolio size disregarding the industry of the protected technology (“Count of patent documents”) and the corresponding number of patent families, proxy of the different inventions protected by patents.
Company name Count of Inventions Count of patent documents Antica Torrefazione Del Borgo 1 2 Ariete Spa 80 235 Bianchi Vending Group Spa 9 26 Cafe do Brasil Spa 3 16 Caffè Dell’Opera 1 2 Caffè Ghigo Srl 2 2 Caffè Molinari Spa 2 10 Caffè Pascucci Torrefazione Spa 1 16 Caffita System Spa 5 42 De Longhi Spa 157 390 Ducale Macchine del Caffè 5 23 Elektra S.r.l. (Macchine da Caffè) 3 11 Espressaroma Spa 4 14 Frabosk Casalinghi Spa 11 45 Gaggia Spa 76 273 Gima Spa 59 107 Goglio Spa 127 462 Gruppo Cimbali Spa 145 464 Hausbrandt Trieste 1892 Spa 7 82 I.L. Ind Ligure Caffè R 1 1 Iacobucci HF Electronics Spa 9 112 Il Caffè Del Professore Srl 1 7 Illy Caffè Spa 30 64 IMA Industria Macchine Automatiche Spa 237 850 IMC Italiana Macchine Caffè Spa 1 2 Luigi Lavazza Spa 42 194 Macchiavelli Srl 5 14 Meridionale Caffè 1 2 N&W Global Vending Spa 49 179 Nuova Faema Spa 50 181 Petroncini Impianti Spa 5 22 Polti Spa 31 103 Rancilio Macchine Caffè 31 225 Rheavendors Spa 24 210 Santos Caffè e Affini srl 1 6 Segafredo Zanetti Coffee System 3 5 Sgl Italia Srl 41 196 Soledor Caffè 1 2 SPM Drink Systems Spa 8 29 Torrefazione Coffee & Sugar Snc 1 1 Torrefazione Ionia Spa 5 6 Torrefazione Mokador Srl 1 1 Torrefazione Viola Srl 1 1 Tuttoespresso Spa 24 194
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Patent Intelligence on Coffee Industry Focus on Piemonte
3.1 Sample statistics The analyses of patent data collected for the identified sample show a changing trend across the investigated years. Focusing on the last time window, the sample companies show a slowly increasing filing activity until the end of the ‘90s followed by a steep growth until 2005; in the last years the trend changes and the number of filings decreases towards the levels of the early 2000s.
Figure 12 Total number of patent applications per filing year Figure 13 Total number of inventions (counted as patent (last 2 years are not shown due to high level of missing data). families) per earliest priority year. 300 300
250 250 Applications Inventions 200 200
150 150
100 100
50 50
0 0
1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 1980
Shifting the focus on the actual number of inventions protected through patents, the resulting chart is reported in Figure 13. Inventions are counted as patent families10 on the basis of their earliest priority year, that is the first year of filing of all the patent members of the same family. The trend appears more linear with a constant growth along the whole time frame. Such evidences suggest that the actual inventive activities are increasing (with a slowdown in the last years) and that the inventions developed at the beginning of the 2000s were particular valuable to deserve more applications all over the world for the same invention: the evidence suggests that the development of inventions related to capsules and cartridges as coffee containers might be correlated to a higher number of geographical extensions, in order to cover more countries due to the possible interchangeability across different coffee machines.
The analysis of the publication countries allows identifying those destination patent offices which receive the highest number of filings. Such information highlights the most relevant markets in terms of innovation-based competition. The European Patent Office ranks first and the Italian second. If the results are anticipated by the composition of the sample of Italian companies, it is interesting to note the presence of Australia Canada and Portugal among the top 10 positions.
10 More details on the definition of a patent family are available here: http://www.epo.org/searching/essentials /patent-families.html 14
Patent Intelligence on Coffee Industry Focus on Piemonte
Figure 14 Aggregate share of publication patent offices in the Figure 15 Trend of applications filed at the top 5 patent offices considered years in terms of number of filings. in the years 1991 - 2009. 160
140 EP PT Other EP 120 IT 2% 17% 21% WO AU 100 3% US CA 80 3% DE AT IT 60 5% 16% 40 ES US 5% DE 20 9% WO 10%
9% 0
1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
With the aim of identifying possible sub-technology trajectories, we examined the IPC codes assigned to the sample patents by focusing on the sub-class level, that is the four digit codes. The analysis is carried out based on the family unit in order to stay closer to the single inventions. Three IPC subclasses report more than 2 inventions per year: A47J, B65B and B65D: their trends and descriptions are displayed in the following charts. The first IPC subclass is A47J which refers to kitchen equipment: it is not only the category with the largest number of applications in the time frame but also the one with the most significant growth. The other two subclasses are connected to packaging processes and containers, that is to the delivery of products.
Figure 16 Largest IPC subclasses between 1991 and 2010 (on Table 3 Top IPC subclasses in the time window 1991 – 2010: average more than two patent families per year). codes and brief descriptions. 35 IPC subclass Description A47J 30 Kitchen equipment; coffee mills; spice mills; B65B A47J 25 apparatus for making beverages B65D 20 Machines, apparatus or methods of, packaging 15 B56B articles or materials; unpacking 10
5 Containers for storage or transport of articles, B65D e.g. bags, bottles, boxes, cans, cartons, crates; 0 packaging elements […] 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009
The same analyses can be performed on the whole IPC codes, that is on an even more specific level of technological detail. In this case we focus on last decade: even if the amounts are lower than when using the upper level of IPC subclasses, it is possible to highlight 3 sub-technology fields, related to the production of coffee-making apparatus as depicted in the following charts.
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Patent Intelligence on Coffee Industry Focus on Piemonte
Figure 17 Top IPC codes in the time window 2000 – 2010 in Table 4 Top IPC codes in the time window 2000 – 2010: codes terms of yearly inventions (at least 2 patent families per year). and brief descriptions. 12 IPC code Description A47J003140 10 Beverage-making apparatus with dispensing means A47J003144 A47J for adding a measured quantity of ingredients, e.g. 31/40 8 A47J003136 coffee, water, sugar, cocoa, milk, tea
6 A47J Parts or details of beverage-making apparatus 31/44 4
2 A47J Apparatus for making beverages with mechanical 0 31/36 pressure-producing means 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
From the main bibliometrical data available in patent documents, some insights can be drawn. Some patents are assigned to more than one owner, especially when inventors are included by default and when the invention is the result of cooperation among one or more companies.
Figure 18 Changes in the average number of assignees Figure 19 Changes in the average number of claims (reference (reference year: 1990 equal to 100%). year: 1990 equal to 100%). 130% 160%
120% 140%
110% 120%
100% 100%
90% 80%
80% 60% Assignees Claims 70% 40%
From a general perspective, the analysis of the trend of the number of assignees should highlight the changes in the level of joint development of inventions. In our sample, the average number of assignees per patent significantly increases in the last years. It suggests that companies are collaborating to develop innovations. No relevant trend can be identified for the number of inventors. The number of claims can be interpreted as a measure of invention complexity. In the examined sample it is increasing through years.
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Patent Intelligence on Coffee Industry Focus on Piemonte
Figure 20 Changes in the average number of IPC codes assigned A similar analysis can be carried on the number of to patents (reference year: 1990 equal to 100%). different IPC codes assigned to patented inventions. In 180% this case, the higher the number of technology categories the higher the probability that the corresponding 160% inventions is very fundamental and might be applied to 140% several technical domains.
120% The relative trend of the number of IPC codes compared to year 1990 oscillates until 2010. The increase between 100% 1995 and 2003 suggests the development of inventions 80% with less specific fields of application; on the contrary the recent years describe a pattern where the protected 60% inventions are connected to more specific and, probably, 40% more incremental inventions. IPC scope 20%
3.2 Patent holders in Piemonte On a total of 44 companies with at least one patent, 3 are headquartered in Piemonte (6.8% of the sample of 44 Italian patenting companies) and their combined portfolio is 392 (8.1% of the sum of patents owned by sample firms) representing 85 inventions (6.5% on total inventions): the selected companies are Lavazza, SGL Italia and Caffè Ghigo. A fourth company, holder of utility models only, has been added to the analyses: Caffè Vergnano is briefly described in the last paragraph.
A first general comparison can be presented by focusing on the most relevant companies in the sample of patent owners (two firms located in Piemonte, Lavazza and SGL Italia, and three companies located in North Eastern Italy: Illy Caffè, Segafredo Zanetti and Hausbrandt Trieste). The IPC codes assigned to patents serve as a proxy of the technology categories where inventive activities are more concentrated. The most frequent (especially in the recent years) are mainly connected to improvements to coffee-making machines and to innovations in the method to insert coffee powder in the machine, that is as means of specific small containers or packages: capsules and cartridges.
According to the classification distinguishing between coffee-making machine and capsules proposed in the next table, it is possible to notice which companies are more active in terms of patent filings in the two categories: by way of example, SGL Italia holds several patents related to the coffee-making apparatus but no patent for any type of coffee container; on the contrary Segafredo Zanetti appears to develop more innovations focused on the packaging of coffee to be inserted in a corresponding apparatus; finally, data describe Lavazza and Hausbrandt Trieste as those with the largest portfolios protecting the category of coffee containers and packaging.
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Patent Intelligence on Coffee Industry Focus on Piemonte
Table 5 Number of patents in the most relevant IPC codes for the selected companies
Focus of IPC Description
invention
Trieste Zanetti
Lavazza
Illy Illy Caffè
SGL Italia SGL
Segafredo Segafredo Hausbrandt Hausbrandt
A47J 31/06 Apparatus for making beverages; Filters or strainers for coffee or tea makers 53 58 5 9
Coffee-making apparatus in which hot water is passed through the filter under A47J 31/24 2 36 4 6 pressure Coffee-making apparatus in which hot water is passed through the filter under A47J 31/36 76 25 2 31
pressure (liquid or mechanical pressure-producing means) making machine making Beverage-making apparatus with dispensing means for adding a measured - A47J 31/40 113 62 28 13 quantity of ingredients, e.g. coffee, water, sugar, cocoa, milk, tea
A47J 31/44 Parts or details of beverage-making apparatus Coffee 30 15 4 9
Containers having bodies formed by interconnecting two or more rigid, or B65D 06/40 substantially rigid, components […] with walls formed with filling or emptying 38
apertures
Containers […] for contents presenting particular transport or storage problems, B65D 81/00 46 38 3 2 or adapted to be used for non-packaging purposes after removal of contents
Containers […] for packaging foodstuffs intended to be cooked or heated within capsule B65D 81/34 36 2 the package
Disposable containers or packages with contents which are infused or dissolved cartridge, Container, B65D 85/804 62 38 1 4 in situ
The next sub-sections will provide some insights on the companies headquartered in Piemonte.
3.2.1 Lavazza Luigi Lavazza S.p.A., through its subsidiaries, engages in the production and marketing of systems and products for the coffee sector. The company markets, sells, and distributes coffee-capsule espresso machines for home use; and coffee vending machines for large companies and organizations. It also offers related supplies that include roasted coffee in various blends and varieties; and coffee cups, sugar sticks, dosage spoons, biscuits, glasses, and various promotional products. In addition, the company operates a chain of coffee shops. It markets its products in the United Stated, Canada, and internationally. The company was founded in 1894 and is based in Turin, Italy. Luigi Lavazza S.p.A. operates as a subsidiary of Finlav S.p.A..
The company has been owned by the Lavazza family for four generations. Lavazza is one of the most important roasters in the world and a leader in Italy: over €1.2 billion in turnover in 2011, 90 countries worldwide in which Lavazza is present, over 3,800 employees and 17 billion cups of Lavazza coffee consumed yearly worldwide.
The following tables show the results of the analyses on the collected patents on the basis of the IPC codes assigned to the inventions in order to highlight the dominant technology fields and the changes in the last 50 years. The data suggest that the inventive activity increased in the domain of the coffee-making apparatus. The most relevant recent inventive trend is determined by patent applications in the field of the IPC codes “A47J 31/36” and “A47J 31/44” that is “Coffee-making apparatus in which hot water is passed through the filter under pressure (or with hot water under liquid pressure or with mechanical pressure-producing means)” and related components.
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Patent Intelligence on Coffee Industry Focus on Piemonte
Figure 21 Table 6 Top IPC subclasses from 1970: codes and descriptions. IPC subclasses Description
Kitchen equipment; coffee mills; spice mills; 14 A47J apparatus for making beverages 12 10 Coffee; tea; their substitutes; manufacture, A23F 8 preparation, or infusion thereof 6 A47J Containers for storage or transport of articles, e.g. 4 A23F B65D G07F B65D bags, bottles, boxes, cans, cartons, crates; 2 H02M packaging elements […] E01H 0 B60Q 1970s Other G07F, H02M, [These subclasses are related to the sub- 1980s1990s 2000s 2010s E01Q, B60Q components of the apparatus for coffee-making]
Figure 22 Table 7 Top IPC codes from 1970 (group level). IPC code Description Beverage-making apparatus with dispensing means 12 A47J for adding a measured quantity of ingredients, e.g. 31 10 coffee, water, sugar, cocoa, milk, tea 8 B65D Containers, packaging elements or packages, 6 85 specially adapted for particular articles or materials
4 A47J0031 A47J G07F0011 Implements for preparing or holding food […] 2 B65D0085 43 A47J0043 0 H02M0007 1970s Other G07F 11, [These subclasses are related to the sub-components 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s H02M 07 of the apparatus for coffee-making]
Thirteen patents owned by Lavazza received at least one citation from other 25 patent owners. Of them, 5 are Italian while the rest are foreign companies. Among the patentees citing Lavazza’s patents, the most frequent are multinational enterprises operating in several fields of food and beverages, namely Kraft and Coca Cola; furthermore Illy Caffè, one of Lavazza’s direct competitors, is included in such list.
The two most cited patents are related to a specific product, “a disposable cartridge for use in a machine”, but functional to a generic beverage: that is the reason why other food and beverage companies developed improved inventions citing Lavazza’s.
3.2.2 SGL Italia SGL Italia designs, produces, and sells small electrical appliances. Its products include coffee machines, espresso machines, semiprofessional slicers, tomatoes squeezers, and coffee grinders. The company was founded in 1976 and is based in Castelnuovo Calcea, Italy. SGL Italia was acquired in 2007 by the international group N&W Global Vending. Patents belonging to SGL Italia have been filed since the first years of 2000s.
From the analysis of the IPC codes it emerges that SGL Italia seems very focused on the technologies related to the apparatus for making beverages (in this case coffee). However in recent years, the inventive activities seem to have led to the development of some innovations in fields more focused on specific sub-components of the coffee-making machine (e.g. the category “Dispensing spouts, pumps, drain valves or like liquid transporting devices” is increasing).
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Patent Intelligence on Coffee Industry Focus on Piemonte
Figure 23 Table 8 Top IPC subclasses from 2000: codes and descriptions. IPC subclasses Description
Kitchen equipment; coffee mills; spice mills; A47J 30 apparatus for making beverages 25 pipes; joints or fittings for pipes; supports for 20 F16L pipes, cables or protective tubing; means for 15 thermal insulation in general A47J F16L 10 Coffee; tea; their substitutes; manufacture, A23F A23F 5 preparation, or infusion thereof A23L 0 C02F [These subclasses are related to food and water 2000s A23L, C02F 2010s treatment]
Figure 24 Table 9 Top IPC codes from 1970 (group level). IPC code Description Beverage-making apparatus with dispensing means A47J 30 for adding a measured quantity of ingredients, e.g. 31 coffee, water, sugar, cocoa, milk, tea 25 F16L 20 Couplings of the quick-acting type 37 15 A47J0031 10 F16L0037 A23F A23F0005 Coffee; Coffee substitutes; Preparations thereof 5 05 C02F0001 0 A23L0002 C02F 01, [These subclasses are related to water and non- 2000s 2010s A23L 02 alcoholic beverages treatment]
Twenty-five patents owned by SGL Italia received at least one citation from other 44 patent owners, almost half of them are Italian and some are included in the sample: Lavazza, Hausbrandt Trieste, Saeco, Bianchi and De Longhi. However the company who cited most SGL Italia’s patents is the global enterprise Nestlè through its subsidiary Nestec.
The two most cited patents describe respectively a “coffee machine” and a “coffee machine for brewing coffee from ground coffee packed in a cartridge”.
3.2.3 Caffè Ghigo and Caffè Vergnano Caffè Ghigo was founded in 1974 in Bra, Cuneo. The company holds several product brands (e.g. DICAF, Rio Negro, SPIC, Op1, etc.) and two Italian patent applications related to a coffee making apparatus which can serve also other beverages.
Caffè Vergnano was founded in 1882 and is now among the biggest Italian large scale distributor in the HORECA sector with more than 4,000 clients and exporting products to more than 60 countries worldwide. Its patent portfolio accounts for ten Italian utility models corresponding to five patent families: such inventions describe, in particular, a coffee-making machine structured around a water container which can be replaced by a common bottle of water. 20
Patent Intelligence on Coffee Industry Focus on Piemonte
Nestlè VS Caffè Vergnano11
One of the most noteworthy recent events involving Caffè Vergnano regards Nestlè’s application for a preliminary injunction against Vergnano at the Court of Torino in the first half of 2012. Caffè Vergnano sells its own capsules (Èspresso1882) stating on the packaging that they are compatible with Nespresso machines. Nestlè asserted that Vergnano’s capsules infringed its patents and constituted a misuse of the trademark “Nespresso”, unfair competition and misleading comparative advertising.
The court ruled that Èspresso1882 capsules did not violate any Nespresso patents, despite being compatible with Nespresso machines, meaning that the capsules can be sold in Italy. The reasons of the decision lay in the fact that Nespresso patent protects a system where capsules are included but not the capsules themselves, while, on the other side, Vergnano’s capsules are different. However, the court stated that Caffè Vergnano has to change the capsule label to one more specifically explaining which machines made by Nespresso are compatible.
According to the court, the Nespresso-compatible capsules of Vergnano cannot be considered an act of unfair competition nor harmful to the reputation of Nestlè-owned trademark but the sentence stating the compatibility was too broad and thus judged inconsistent with the principles of fair-trade practice.
Although the first instance case is closed, Nestlè went on for a permanent injunction at full trial and the case is still on debate.
11 More information can be found for instance in D’Alessio, Trademark aspects of the coffee capsule case: Nestlè v Vergnano, 2012 (http://www.iam-magazine.com/reports/Detail.aspx?g=a4f69e1c-2335-4371-ba22-ec7c290d998f ). 21