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The podtech industry is one of the hottest and most developing in the world of start-ups, with Israel at the forefront. Health, environmental and moral considerations are pushing Podtech companies in the race to find solutions such as appropriate meat substitutes, in a dynamic market that is only gaining momentum and expanding. The momentum given to the industry is also translated, among other things, into the financial aspect, when in 2021 alone venture capital flowed into it at a record amount of about $ 39 billion.
In the developing industry, Israel is setting the tone. Last month, we were informed that the largest civilized meat association in the world has been finally approved by the Israeli Innovation Authority – and will receive government funding in the amount of NIS 60 million for the entire period of its activity, which will be spread over three years. The consortium will consist of 14 companies, including some of the largest meat substitute companies in the world, along with 10 academic laboratories. Israel ranks second in investment in the field in the world after the United States, with civilized meat companies raising about $ 507 million in 2021, a sum 24 times larger than the amount raised in the previous year.
The food tech industry, a leading industry in the high-tech world, is thriving following the success of many and varied patents that have led entrepreneurs to products that have changed and will change humanity and the way we all consume food. The road to a successful startup goes through the registration of his patent but not only. “The recommendation for all high-tech entrepreneurs, and Podtech in particular, is unequivocal: arrive and consult with a patent attorney as soon as possible. Patents have a key principle – everyone wins first,” describes Lilach Luzzatto Shukron, patent attorney and partner in the Luzzatto Group, one of the country’s leading intellectual property groups. Its customers include many of the industry’s leading high-tech companies. The Luzzatto Group specializes, among other things, in assisting start-ups, entrepreneurs, venture capital funds, large food companies and other players in the industry, and provides them with the essential and comprehensive professional advice for recruiting investors and forming strategic partnerships.
“When a patent attorney enters the picture already in the initial stages, this is the best opportunity to formulate a proper intellectual property strategy for the company. It is also the best timing to conduct patent surveys of various types to understand for example what are the strengths, what can be protected – to what extent and in what ways. The options of the development paths are worth investing in, as well as what should be avoided. ”
At Podtech, as in any other field, in order to obtain a patent, the requirements of the law must be met. One requirement is that the invention be new, meaning that it was not published anywhere before the patent application was filed, not even by the applicant himself. In addition, the invention must meet the criterion of inventive step, where the meaning of this criterion is that the progress is not self-evident to an average professional in the field based on the knowledge in the field in question. The invention must be both useful and industrially applicable in order to be patentable. Sometimes it is not enough to register one patent and the patent attorney always has to look at the overall picture.
The finished product you want to protect first may be surrounded by additional things that require separate registration, or additional types of protections, which is very common in the food technology industry – “for example laboratory equipment, production systems, fertilizer, preservatives, control systems, and even a combination of artificial intelligence systems. “Different stages in the process. This is an area in which at each stage there can be a number of different inventions,” says Advocate Luzzatto. So do copyrights, cultivator rights, trademarks and more. Require clarification and referral to such parties. “In cases where it is necessary, it is recommended that the patent attorney work in a team with the commercial attorney, as many of the commercial issues relate to aspects of intellectual property and technology. This is how we work in our group to provide holistic treatment. ”
The trade secret
Among the many obstacles that must be overcome on the way to obtaining patents, one of the main ones is the need not to reveal important trade secrets. The same valuable protection is maintained by refraining from disclosing information that is not essential for the purpose of obtaining the other protections. “A bigger challenge in this context is to know how to distinguish between inventions that deserve to be kept as trade secrets, and those that we will derive more benefit from if they are registered as a patent, when of course you enter the system of reasonable considerations for obtaining that patent,” says Attorney Luzzatto Shukron. On inventions by a trade secret and thus, do not register it as a patent, but do not take into account that there is a chance that someone else will succeed in reaching the same development and perhaps get a first patent on it, or they will be able to reverse engineer and thus discover the trade secret.
This is a complex and multifaceted set of considerations, and the continuous relationship with the patent attorney is the key to formulating the right strategy and adapting it to the current circumstances at each stage. This is especially important for start-up companies, as it is a dynamic situation that always requires a comprehensive and in-depth vision by an experienced patent attorney with a relevant technological background, who will have the tools to examine the whole thing continuously and make the necessary adjustments.
Attorney Lilach Luzzatto Shukron (Photo: Yoram Reshef)
The global and national need
The preoccupation with green technological developments is also in line with the declining population of the planet – with forecasts predicting that by 2050 the number of humans on the globe will exceed 10 billion. Today, grazing areas make up 26% of the world, and other areas are designated for animal husbandry. For every kilo of meat sold to the customer, the animals consume another 20,000-40,000 liters of clean drinking water and emit greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. This is an extreme exploitation of natural resources alongside the creation of greenhouse gases and ecological pollution. In the current state of affairs the expected result is the inability to feed the entire amount of people and reach extreme hunger.
The success of the world of podtech is an expression of the expansion of the Israeli “ecosystem” into new areas that are not necessarily software-based, but are part of a large array of exploiting Israeli excellence in biology and academic life sciences, which is combined with many of Israel’s data capabilities. “In the last decade, we have invested more than NIS 200 million in the food tech industry,” says Dr. Ami Applebaum, chairman of the Israeli Innovation Authority. “This is one of the country’s engines of growth. This is an area where Israel stands out, both in terms of companies and investments. And yet, the area is still in its infancy. This is the right time to enter, lead and produce, because at the moment the number of competitors is small. “If they run fast enough, they can succeed – and from a situation of start-ups and small companies, we can make sure that they can conquer global market shares.”
“The very granting of the grants is putting the focus in the field of podtech, and it shows that there is something worth investing in here and probably that there is still a lot to develop. There is an important statement here – they believe in the possibilities of technological development in the field of podtech, and this demonstrates the enormous potential that exists here, “concludes Advocate Luzzatto Shukron.