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All companies being the main players in the field, i.e. L’Oreal, KAO Corp, BASF, Nutrica NV and Procter & Gamble, belong to the previously identified “top 50” worldwide in the Thomson Reuters report140 . BASF, which was identified as one of the main players in the field of patents on genes from marine organisms, by now - and by considering not only genes - does not play a very prominent role anymore.141 The energy sector is – as to be expected – different with respect to the main players: Shell is the leading company in patenting. Interestingly, the next important player is a research institution: the University of Arizona with a European co-inventor. American companies are main players in marine biofuels: the field of bioenergy is in non-European hands. There are only some minor inventors from European countries, who patent together with big companies in the US or Asia. In contrast to the worldwide patenting scene, European universities and other non-industrial institutions have a lot of publications (Reuters report, page 45), but play so far hardly any role in gathering patents in the Blue Biotechnology sector. Figure 0.14 Key players in marine biotechnology patents (blue: companies, green: private companies, white: research institutions, orange: universities) Specific results of TOP assignees per sectors: Cosmetics 140 Thomson Reuters Patent Report 2011 141 See Arnaud-Haond S, Arrieta J (M, Duarte CM (2011) Marine Biodiversity and Gene Patents. Science 331: 1521-1522; see also presentation Concarneau, 20012): 54 out of 149 German patents in the MBT sectors are from BASF. Study in support of Impact Assessment work on Blue Biotechnology 109

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