Patent Portfolio Nestle

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IIPTA Launch a Career. Be Awesome Patent Portfolio : Nestle

Abstract

In order to investigate the most recent growth (2007- present) of the leading food company Nestle, a patent portfolio is generated and analyzed. To gather detailed patent information about Nestle, a search query “Pa: Nestle and Dp:[01.01.2007 to 30.09.2013] “ is used in WIPO database. The same concept is also used in Patent Lens (another database) to retrieve the patents of the said company. After careful analysis, it is found that the rate of grant of patent fall after 2007 while there is no current record of filing after 2010 (1). The trend of year of first file is recorded in 1995 although maximum number of filing is observed in 2002 followed by a decline from 2003. Information of filing of couple of design patents is also found where the maximum filing of design patent is observed in two successive years- 2008 and 2009. The analysis of years of second filing is also performed although no significant trend is noticed between the year of first filing and second filing. Among the subsidiaries, Societe Des Products Nestle S.A. has owned 80% of entire patents followed by Nestle Waters management and technology (17%). European Patent Office is the preferred place of first and second filing of inventions for Nestle group followed by the United States. A23 is the major classification under which most of the Nestle inventions are categorized although is it difficult to interpret from the classification of design patents. Technology mind maps are represented to provide an idea about the recent inventions from Nestle which includes applications of inventions, products and process involved. After preliminary taxonomy, a SWOT analysis is carried out to observe the internal positive, internal negative, external positive and external negative factors which can play important role for future business trend of Nestle group. A competitive intelligence chart is prepared for easy understanding of potential contenders of Nestle group on the basis of product ranges, finances, research and development and future plans. 1 www.iipta.com Patent Portfolio : Nestle

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TOPIC PAGE NO.

Chapter 1: About Nestle ...... 3 - 6 1.1 History ...... 3 1.2 Infrastructure ...... 3 1.3 Brands ...... 4 1.4 Financial information ...... 5 1.5 Research and development ...... 5 1.6 Recent News ...... 5 - 6 1.7 Controversies ...... 6 1.8 Objective of project ...... 6 Chapter 2: Methodology ...... 7 Chapter 3: Result and Statistical Analysis ...... 8 - 20 3.1 Bibliographic analysis ...... 8 - 13 3.1.1 Basic Patent information from Nestle ...... 8 3.1.2 Patenting activities over time ...... 9 3.1.3 Contributions from the Nestle subsidiaries ...... 10 3.1.4 Place of first filing ...... 11 3.1.5 Patent distribution under IPCs ...... 12 3.1.6 Patent activity vs. year and place of second filing ...... 13 3.2 Technical analysis ...... 14 - 20 3.2.1 Applications of inventions made from Nestle ...... 14 3.2.2 Applications of design patents ...... 15 - 16 3.2.3 Products and compositions ...... 17 - 18 3.2.4 Process involved ...... 19 - 20 Chapter 4: SWOT analysis ...... 21 - 22 Chapter 5: Competitive intelligence ...... 23 - 26 Chapter 6: Discussion ...... 27 - 28 References ...... 29 - 31

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Chapter 1 About Nestle

1.1 1.2 History Infrastructure Nestle is world’s leading nutrition, health and Nestle is driven by a group of 14 directors led wellness company. Starting from baby food by the former CEO of Nestle Peter Brabeck- 2 to weight management, the world’s topmost Letmathe . The entire group is managed brands for the nutritional and wellness through segregating into geographies products come under Nestle. This company (Europe, America, Asia/Africa/Oceania) for first started its business by launching “Farine most of the food and beverage businesses. lactee”, a combination of cow’s milk, wheat Highest numbers of factories are in America flour and sugar in Switzerland in 18671. After (38%), although maximum employees (39%) almost four decades, Nestle merged with an have worked in Asia/Africa/Oceania regions Anglo-Swiss Condensed milk company and followed by the employees in European (28%) started to grow in the business by launching and American factories (33%) respectively4. nutritional products, , coffee etc. The administrative and sales departments Nestle’s first successful brand “Nescafe” came include 47% of the total employees whereas 3 to market in 1938 followed by “” and rests of them are engaged in factories . The “Nesquick” in 1947 and 1948, respectively. last year business report, 2012 showed an Nestle diversified from the food industry for increment of sales (4%) with US $ 0.20 hike the first time when it merged with world’s in profit per share w.r.t. the financial scenario leading cosmetic company L’Oreal in 19741. of 2011. It also acquired Alcon Laboratories Inc., an American manufacturer of pharmaceutical and ophthalmic products in 1977 in order to prove its interest in healthcare products.

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1.3 Brands: The topmost brands of Nestle are represented in Table 14.

Baby foods , Gerber, Gerber Graduates, NaturNes, Nestum

Bottled Water Nestlé Pure Life, , , S.Pellegrino

Cereals , Cini Minis, Cookie , , Cereal

Chocolate & confectionary , Nescafé 3 in 1, Nescafé Cappuccino, Nescafé Classic, Nescafé Decaff, Nescafé , Nescafé Gold,

Culinary, chilled & Frozen , Herta, , , Maggi, Stouffer’s food

Dairy , Coffee-Mate, La Laitière,

Drinks Juicy Juice, , Nesquik,

Food Service Chef, Chef-Mate, Maggi, Milo, Minor’s, Nescafé, Nestea, Sjora, Lean Cuisine, Stouffer’s

Healthcare Nutrition Boost, Nutren Junior, Peptamen, Resource

Ice Cream Dreyer’s, Extrême, Häagen-Dazs, Mövenpick, Nestlé Ice Cream

Petcare , Bakers Complete, Beneful, Cat Chow, Chef Michael’s Canine Creations, , , , , Gourmet, Purina, Purina ONE, Pro Plan

Sports Nutrition Powerbar

Weight Management Jenny Craig

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d’Ivoire and Indonesian Coffee and Cocoa 1.4 Research Institute in 2009. Immediately after Financial information: the collaboration, Nestle became top among 6 This Company has sold the products of 41.1 the food industry patent filings in 2010 . In bn CHF, 26.5 bn CHF and 24.6 bn CHF in the same year, Nestle joined with Cleveland the United States, Europe and Asia/Oceania/ Clinic to research about the benefits of health African market3 in 2012 with a growth of from whole grain. Apart from these, Nestle’s 5.9% in organic sector. The United States, significant research areas are gut health, 5 France, Brazil, Greater China, , obesity and harmful pathogens in food . Mexico, , Italy, Cananda and Nestle research centre also found that how Australia are considered as the top 10 markets several kinds of food could influence bite for Nestle products3. The highest sales comes size, chewing time, feeling of fullness and 6 from powdered and liquid beverages products food intake . It has become top of the global (20 bn CHF) followed by milk products (18.6 companies which have been working on bn CHF), ready food products (14.4 bn CHF), the reduction of carbon emission. Recently, petcare products (10.8 bn CHF), nutrition a research has been planned to find out the and healthcare product (10.7 bn CHF), alternatives of salt through collaboration confectionary products (10.4 bn CHF), and between Nestle and Chromocell, an American 6 water (7.2 bn CHF), respectively3. Life-Science’s company . Also, “Milo Match- Up”, from Nestlé’s Milo beverage brand, helps to connect people who would like to arrange a sports game but who are having difficulty 1.5 finding other players- the app helps to find Research and development: out the people with same level of interests in The research and development sector is sports6. one of most important pillar for the success of Nestle. Salt reduction from culinary products is a long-term project undertaken 1.6 by Nestle. The food giant issued a sodium Recent News: policy in 2005 in order to reduce salt by 25% in five years from frozen meals, light meals The 2013 International Congress of Nutrition and snacks5. Again this food giant took the held in was rocked by another surprising attempt to decrease the amount of salt by 10% fact- the scientists from Nestle group revealed from higher salt products, 75% in original that the complex changes of the lipid levels of recipes, in 2007 and 2010, respectively5. the body towards metabolism of amino acids However, foods with least quantity of salt influences longer live7 . In the current year were manufactured for , Brazil and (2013), Nestle’s two-fingered Kit-Kat which France5. To provide high quality beverage is seconds most popular fair-trade product products, Nestle collaborated with National in the United Kingdom, has brought the Centre for Agronomic Research in Cote opportunity to earn for more than thousands

5 www.iipta.com Patent Portfolio : Nestle farmers in the , one of the poorest New York filed a case on Nestle group and rd3 countries in the world8. Arranging the World Institute called a boycott many Nestle earning opportunities for the citizens in the products to protest the formula feeding Ivory Coast, the food-product giant has also in those countries in 1977. Also, a report decided to expand their industry in Nestle8. entitled “Nestle kills babies“ was published In future, the same strategy will be taken in 1974. In response, Nestle group defended by Nestle group to be active in Venezuela, the company believed breast feeding as the Ecuador, , Indonesia and other Latin best for infants and the infant formula was American countries in future. On 8th Aug, promoted for the mothers who could not 2013, Nestle group has confessed about the breast feed11. decline in sales which frustrated the investors Most recently, Ontario government has made for four straight quarters9 mainly in diet a deal about the withdraw of water from an products, water and frozen entrees9. To cope underground water resource near Wellington with the recent situation, a business strategy country even after knowing Nestle withdraws termed as “cell methodology” has been 1.3 million litres of water per day for bottling adopted by Nestle group which will analyze which can cause scarcity during draught. The 1,000 distinct business units or cells in 194 Wellington Water Watchers, Eco-justice and countries and help to decide which ones the Council of Canadians are eagerly waiting should get more or less investment9. Most for a full hearing of the matter 12. recently (Oct., 2013), the Nestle scientists conducted a study among the women with visceral obesity and discovered distinct 1.8 “metabolic signature” of lipids and amino Objective of project: acids10. Patent portfolio is a huge collection of patents owned by an organization or company in order to generate revenue. The importance of 1.7 patent portfolio analysis of a company is to Controversies: analyze and visualize the strategic position of The most significant controversy about the said company14. In addition, the potential Nestle is that the expansion of its infant milk collaboration can be evaluated and the asset product discouraging breastfeeding which can be identified and prioritized. The aims of causes death of several babies. The mother this report are to find out from third world countries along with Peru, rural Mexico, and was a) The trend of invention of Nestle, discouraged showing the best supplement of b) the worldwide markets of Nestle, breast milk for their infants which resulted c) strength, weakness, opportunity and death of their babies due to the malnutrition. threat for Nestle, and Interfaith Centre on Corporate Responsibility, d) Potential competitors of Nestle.

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Chapter 2 Methodology

Considering the main objectives of the reports, the innovation timeline of Nestle is chosen between 2007 and 2012 to observe the most recent growth in innovation. To retrieve the patents- WIPO and Patent Lens are chosen because no other common databases do not provide the options of time range. Several databases require several search queries and several number of results. To make the search queries, Nestle is considered as the applicant/assignee in most databases and also the duration between 2007 and 2012 is also mentioned. Table 2 shows the search queries and number of patents from each database.

Search query Name of database Number of Patents

Pa:Nestle and Dp:[01.01.2007 to 31.12.2012] WIPO 291

a) Applicant/assignee: Nestle Patent Lens 496 b) Published between 01.01.2007 to 31.12.2012

AANM/nestle USPTO 0

An/Nestle and ISD/1/1/2007->07/30/2013 Free Patent Online 162

The patents which show “Nestle” as the person’s name in the assignee/applicant are not chosen for the analysis. After retrieval of patents, patent data are tabulated as taxonomical manner. There are two types of patent data- bibliographic data and technical data. Patent number, title of patent, inventor name, applicant name, year of first filing, year of second filing, place of first filing, place of second filing, international patent classification code (IPC) are the bibliographic information whereas the application of the patent, patented product, process involved within the patents are usually considered as technical data. Statistical analyses are performed to find out the top applicants/assignees, significant IPCs, patenting activities of Nestle. Mind maps are created to signify the applications of inventions, patented products, and processes involved within the patents of Nestle.

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Chapter 3 Result and Statistical analysis

In this section, the patenting activities of Basic Patent information from Nestle: Nestle (recent six years), patent distributions The study is aimed to collect the patent under several international patent information to evaluate the contribution classification (IPC), contributions from the of Nestle in global market of food products subsidiaries of Nestle, place of patent filings in most recent years (2007 to 2013). Figure are discussed. The technical information such 1 shows the number of filing of inventions, as applications of the inventions, products number of granted and published inventions and compositions, processes involved with in each of 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 the inventions are also included in this and 2013, respectively. section.

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Year Figure 1: Most recent information on Nestle invention

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No information of filing of invention is found the first disclosure date of the inventions. in last two years (extending up to Sept., 2013). The first disclosure date may be priority Only 3 inventions were filed in 2007 while date or filing date. There may be more than each of the years 2008 and 2010 showed a one priority date when the inventions are record of single invention. Also, the rates of disclosed in more than one territory. The grant of invention gradually fall after 2007. patenting activity of Nestle is segregated into first disclosure date and second disclosure Patenting activities over time: date (if applicable). Figure 2 demonstrates The patenting activities of Nestle depend on the patenting activities over time;

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Figure 2: Patenting activities over timeline

It is said that the study is aimed to evaluate patenting record shows that the filing activity the most recent innovation history of Nestle started from 1994 which gradually increases which incorporates the collection of paten up to 2002 followed by a decline from 2003. data (published since 2007 to present). The Highest number of filing was recorded (36) inventions which are published on or after in 2001 followed by 34 (2000), 19 (1999) and 2007 were first filed on or before 2007. The 13 (2002), respectively.

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For the design patent, the filing trend was Contribution from the Nestle subsidiaries: started from 2003; however highest number Nestle group is branched in to several of filing of design patent was found in two parts: Nestle Purina Petcare, Nestle Waters successive years- 2008 and 2009. After 2011, management and technology, Nestle no information about the filing of design is technology, Nestle research centre, Societe recorded. Des Produits Nestle S.A., The contributions for the inventions from each of these parts are recorded (Figure 3.);

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1 4 . 4 . 4 %

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17%

Nestle Japan LTD Societe Des Produits Nestle S.A Nestle Water Management and Technology Nestle Research Centre Nestle Technology Inc. Nestle Singapore Ltd. 80% Nestle Purina Petcare

Figure 3: Contributions from Nestle branches

The maximum contribution (80%) on owned by Societe Des Produits Nestle S.A invention is noticed from Societe Des and remained by Nestle Waters Management. Produits Nestle S.A followed by significant Place of first filing: The study also covers involvement (17%) from Nestle Waters the patenting activities over geographical Management and Technology. scope which means the places where the inventions were first filed. Figure 4. The same trend is also shown for the design represents the patenting activities of Nestle patents; around 84% of the design patents are over geographical scopes.

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EP US France GB Japan AT Singapore CL ZA

Place of first filling

Figure 4.- Patenting activities over geographical scope

Highest numbers of inventions (95) from Patent distribution under IPCs: Nestle Group Nestle were filed through regional route- is famous for food products. So, the inventions European Patent Office. Apart from EP, of food products must have one application- considerable numbers of inventions (49) either useful for human or pets. Also, the were first filed in United States followed by productions of food products adopt several France (9), Great Britain (9) and Japan (2), chemical processes. IPCs are introduced respectively. Each of Austria (AT), Singapore, to evaluate the fields such as applications, Chile and (ZA) shared single processes. In this section, the patent analysis filing of patent. is conducted w.r.t. IPC (Figure. 5).

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A23J A47J

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C12P A23F

B29C C12R G07F

B08B B65B

A23C A61P A21C A23K A01K C08G A23B

C12N B65D B67D B67D

A21D A01H A23G

C12M

International Patent Classification (IPCS) Figure 5: Patent distribution under several IPCS

Maximum inventions (74) are categorized For example, a patent application filed in US under A23F followed by A23K (59), A23L in March, 2010 and the same application/ (45), A23J (39), A23G (26), A23C (22) and modified application is filed in June, 2010 in C12 N (18), respectively. Several inventions Germany- then June, 2010 is considered as are found under B65D, A61P, C12R, A21D, the year of second filing and in this case 1st and C08G etc. which indicates a wide range application and 2nd application are belong to of research works performed by Nestle. the same patent family. So, the evaluations of patenting activities Vs. year and place of Patent activity Vs. year and place of second second filing are important to find the patent filing: Several invention may have more families of the patents. Figure 6 summarizes than priority document such as second a comparison between number of first filing place of filing associated with filing year. and second filing in each year;

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Number of first filling 25 Number of second filling

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0 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015

Figure 6: Comparison between first filing and second filing in each year

Figure 6. shows a trend of second filing considered most preferable route of filing starting from 2000 to 2004 although a single for second time. About 24 inventions were invention was filed for second time in 1995. filed through EP for second time followed by filing place as the United States (6) and Great In addition to this, regional route (EP) was Britain (3), respectively.

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3.2 Technical Analysis

Mind map 1: Applications of inventions made from Nestle

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Mind map 2: Applications of design patents

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Mind Map 3: Applications of design patents

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Mind Map 4: Products and compositions

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Mind map 5: Products and compositions

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Mind map 6: Process involved in several Nestle inventions

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Mind map 7: Process involved in several Nestle inventions

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Chapter 4 SWOT Analysis

The SWOT analysis is a beneficial tool for strategy planning between a company and its environment. It outlines the internal assets of a company as well as its external factors by setting a framework for evaluation of strategy, position and the direction of a company. It is also useful for the strategic marketing planning, competitor evaluation, and business developments, current and future researches15. It outlines the internal assets of a company as well as its external factors. Although, it is an easy analysis tool to configure the strategy of a company, the analysis can depend on personal cognition and subjective position.

Generally, strengths and weakness are considered as the internal factors whereas opportunities and threats are the external factors of a company. The internal structure of a company include infrastructure, qualities of employee, financial assets, research and development while academic or industrial collaborations, domestic market, international markets, government policies, rules and regulations are considered as the external factors. Table 2 points out the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats of Nestle.

Strength Weakness

• Wide varieties of food products such • No evidence of strong collaboration as baby food, ice cream, confectionary, among the inventors or among the water, health food, pet care food with subsidiaries of Nestle group. brand strengths • Most current rate of filing of innovation • High level of market share16 decline; so rate of grant of also falls. • Worldwide branches- branches are • Complex supply chain management19. segregated into America, Europe and Asia/Oceania/Africa. • Qualified and experienced professionals • Strong research and development sector- apart from food technology also work on brain health17, mobile apps18, water management. Several IPCs reflect the several fields of researches. • Strong financial asset

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Opportunities Threats

• Can expand its business by offering the • Food contamination products to smaller towns and other • Expensive raw materials21 geographies • Trends of avoiding ice-creams, tea, • Can expand its product options by coffee (beverages)- healthy eating habits offering more brands can decrease the use of Nestle products. • Collaborations with research • Growth of private labels organizations to work on several fields • Innovation discouraged by strict law beyond food technology. and regulations • Credit policy can be adopted to increase • Price fluctuations can discourage sales20 customers to purchase the Nestle product.

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Chapter 5 Competitive Intelligence

Competitive intelligence is a business tool of ethical gathering and refinement of data to make a strategic business decision for a company13. It is an analysis to the members about the early warning of opportunities and threats13. It provides the estimations and views of market which can help a company to pick itself up. From the taxonomy, it is shown that Nestle is the leading food product company which also has several design patents. In this section, a comparative analysis between Nestle and food product companies is made on the basis of the ranges of products, finance, research areas and future plans. Table 2 summarizes the information about Nestle and Mars Incorporated, Groupe Danone, Mondoleze International Inc. and Unilever. This competitive intelligence is based on the

Infrastructure Company Product Ranges Research and Development Future plans and Finance

Nestle Baby food, • total financial • Several design patents • Working on bio- Group b o t t l e d assets126229 on coffee machine, cup, plastics to use water, cereal, million CHF microwave tray, pasta, as packaging and (financial chocolate bottle tea material. confectionary, report, 2012) machine etc. Application dairy, drinks • Working on to improve the of recyclable and food • Worldwide flavor of coffee, to improve packaging; services, offices with the taste of chocolate, • Plan to preserve healthcare highly to provide pure mineral natural waste for nutrition, ice qualified water through hygienic better packaging cream, pet care, professionals processing, to provide material weight cereals with rich minerals • planning to reduce management, and proteins. water usage by sports nutrition • Also researched on pet 50% during the food. operation in the • Apart from food products, UK considering the researches are done the unavailability on harmful pathogens of of water across blood, gut health, obesity, globe. sports nutrition. • Also aims to reduce the rate of carbon emission.

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Infrastructure Company Product Ranges Research and Development Future plans and Finance

Mars Pet care, • Net Asset • as rice needs more • Plan to incorporated, chocolate, US $ 148000 water and emits green eliminate fossil American Wrigley, food million house gases; Mars fuel energy global food drinks22 (Annual incorporated collaborates and reduction manufacturer report 2012), with International Rice of green house worldwide Research Inst. in Asia. gas. Also plan offices, Also aimed to improve to reduce water worldwide rice nutrition22. usage due to market • With IBM & US Dept. the scarcity of demand of Agriculture, Mars Inc. water22. of food sequencing & annotating • It creates products22. genome of cocoa in order opportunities • more than to produce better quality for better future 90% of sales of product in less time22. of famers who come from • Also work on animal involve in cocoa wrigley, pet behavior such as cats production care and preference of food intake by providing chocolate22 system during their additional pregnancy, dog’s natural financial back feeding behavior22 ups22.

Unilever Ice-cream, • Net Asset • working on stem cells • Reduction of Teabased US $ 127567 research to investigate water usage and beverages, millions, potential roles of stem fossial fuel and Spreads and world wide cells technology for less elimination cooking offices, strong consumers health23 of fossil fuel23. products, corporate • working on effect of • Palm oil is useful household c u l t u r e , chemical in ecosystem in as pesticide; care, s t r o n g South Africa23. working to Deodorants, government • Research into global launch pesticide hair and NGO variation of crops product23. care, personal collaboration; into environmental • Spinach pilot wash,oral care but less ecosystem23. project in Italy • a n d k n o w n • Research on Triclosan, and Germany perfume23 brands23. anti bacterial ingredients will help important in home or to produce personal acre product15. i m p r o v e d • Research on tea, planning quality of food to work on wood useful products in less for tea estates. Also, time23. another study conducted on the effect of tea to reduce blood pressure23 www.iipta.com 24 Patent Portfolio : Nestle

Infrastructure Company Product Ranges Research and Development Future plans and Finance Dannone Fresh dairy • Current • Working on Human • future plan Group products, net income microbiome in order to use of French food b a b y 1,8,18 to investigate the role ingredients manufacturer nutrition, million of microbes on human f r o m MNC. medical Euro, from health genetically nutrition, last annual • 1st low calorie yogurt modified waters24 reportsales using Stevia extract plants24 of 20 billion • 1st green bottle- reduction • Reduction of Euro24. of carbon foot print paper based (40%), lighter bottles, packaging R-PET and biomaterials- weight by it contains 20% plant product24 materials24 • use of • based on breast milk recycled composition, this fiber24 company worked on a • Cultivation mixture of pre-biotics on palm oil (Immunofortis) which to launch new helps to enhance the product as number of healthy pesticide24. bacteria in the gut of • Reduction of infants, reduce allergic water usage, symptoms, infection24. fossil fuel24. • Worked on rich protein medical nutrition product (Fortisip)24

Mondolez Biscuit, • Net asset • Focused on medical • f u t u r e International chocolate, 75,478 nutrition products such investement Inc. beverage, million US as bvitamin 25. of 400 gum $; among • Improvement of the million US and candy, the entire recipes of kraft kitchen25 $ to improve cheese and products- • new innovation on Kraft the living dairy25 biscuits Foods in Snacking with and working and cookies Kraft Milkbite Milk & conditions of grab 27% Granola Bars25 people of total • 63% of American • To produce revenue25. confessed about low foods with energy in early morning17. no artificial Remembering this preservatives, information from survey, flavours or Belvita morning biscuit colors25 has been launched in the market to complete the daily nutrition25.

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Infrastructure Company Product Ranges Research and Development Future plans and Finance

General Mills B a k i n g • Net sales 16, • working on cereals • reduction of product, 658 US $26, specially oats to provide energy and cereals, dough total asset better quality cereals water usage, pastries, fruit, 21,096 US $26; considering the levels of reduction of ice-cream, yogurt shows daily calories26. waste26 meals, pasta, 8% growth • Also research on • eliminations pizza, snack, in sales wrt providing best medical of several s o u p , to other supplement for diabetic position within vegetable, products26 patients26 c o m p a n y yogurt 26 • Promotion of “nature- globally; also valley protein” – look forward to delicious snack and work through energy source26 partnerships26

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Chapter 6 Discussion

Nestle is a global food manufacturing Nestle has been preferring to file the patent company which is also well-known for its through the disclosure in European Patent extensive research quality in human health. office (EP) which shows a compact market To investigate the most current growth of in Europe rather than any other part of the Nestle, we have focused on the patents which world which conflicts with Nestle’s business are published between 2007 to Sept., 2013 report. Nestle has been mostly focusing on and it provides 291 patents. The detailed the preparation or manufacturing of tea, analysis of patent information shows that the beverages followed by the pet food, foods with trends of grant of patent during our selected rich protein for human, chocolate products, time frame become low although there is no dairy products etc. In addition to these, significant trend for the rate of publication researches are going on enzymes to prepare of inventions maintained by Nestle group alcoholic beverages through fermentation during the said time frame. process, tissue culture technique to obtain plant extract, manufacturing of containers to In order to investigate the trend of filing carry the liquid or solid food stuffs. Minute year- we have segregated the information details such as thermal insulation for the of filing year into two first filing year and container to avoid any accident during the second filing year. The patents which are food production, rejoining or reshaping of published on or after 2007, must be filed on plastic products to carry the food products. or before 2007. Considering this fact, we have Nestle also applied for design patents conducted a statistical analysis on the first over coffee machine, chocolate, pasta, jar, filing year which provides three noteworthy freezer, food package. Nestle has focused on information such as 1) the trend of filing year fermentation and probiotics, extrusion, foam was started from 1995, 2) maximum number booster technology, and malt extraction of filing (first file) was recorded in 2007 and 3) technology. With the help of fermentation after 2007, the trend of filing decline. So, the and probiotics, Nestle research centre has patent (ES2281901) which was first filed in already sequenced several probiotic genomes 1995, it took almost twelve years to publish- in order to investigate their characteristics that means the Nestle will enjoy the benefit and mode of actions. Ice-cream, chocolate, of this particular patent for less than 8 years. breakfast cereals, snacks are used to produce This specific patent was filed for second time by extrusion process while Nescafe Capucino in the same place (Great Britain) with similar is made under foam booster technology. filing date. Milo, a nutritional drink is processed under

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malt extraction technique which generates compounds. In addition, the price hikes less sucrose and complex carbohydrates of raw materials play as a factor of major within the product. The portion dispensing threat of Nestle although Nestle has system is well-known for processing of taken strategy to overcome this threat. beverages. Nestle’s 4-point strategy is based on trend predictions, replacement of ingredients, • Food contamination is a general threat reduction of waste, and the involving of for any food company. To avoid from any suppliers2. However, innovation in the type of unexpected contamination, the name of improvement of quality of food checking of quality and safety is always is always being a prime choice for Nestle being preferred. Nestle uses to perform and it is not possible without a balanced ELISA, HPLC, UPLC, GCMS, LC-MS-MS team of technical people, non technical and TOF-MS7 to quantify the chemical people and passion for growth.

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Reference

1. History. Available online http://www.nestle.com/aboutus/history. Last access 09th Oct., 2013

2. Management. Available Online http://www.nestle.com/aboutus/management. Last Access 09th Oct., 2013.

3. Nestle. Annual Report 2012. Available online http://www.nestle.com/asset-library/ documents/library/documents/annual_reports/2012-annual-report-en.pdf Last Access 09th Oct., 2013.

4. Brands. Available Online http://www.nestle.com/brands. Last Access 09th Oct., 2013.

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29 www.iipta.com Patent Portfolio : Nestle

11. Nestlé scientists help to identify biomarkers for obesity-related health problems. http:// www.nestle.com/media/newsandfeatures/nrc-visceral-obesity-study LAst Access 31st Oct., 2013.

12. Nestlé: The Infant Formula Controversy. http://www.paceth.com/ibus/nestle_case.pdf. Last Access 31st Oct., 2013.

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17. New US acquisition for Nestlé Health Science will strengthen Brain Health and Metabolic Health portfolios with new medical foods. http://www.nestle.com/media/newsandfeatures/ nhsc-acquires- Last Access 15th Oct., 2013.

18. Sports enthusiasts can meet their match with new Milo mobile app. Available Online http:// www.nestle.com/media/newsandfeatures/milo-match-up-app last Access 15th Oct., 2013.

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www.iipta.com 30 Patent Portfolio : Nestle

23. http://www.unilever.com/ Last Access 31st Oct., 2013

24. http://www.danone.com/?lang=en Last Access 31st Oct., 2013

25. http://www.mondelezinternational.com/home/index.aspx Last Access 31st Oct., 2013

26. http://www.generalmills.com/ Last Access 31st Oct., 2013

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