MORINGA OLEIFERA LAM. IDENTIFICATION OF OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE BRAZILIAN MARKET THROUGH PATENT LANDSCAPE ANALYSIS

Moringa oleifera Lam. is an arboreal species originated from the northwest if the Indian subcontinent. This species is cultivated due to its high protein content, its perceived medicinal use, and multiple other applications, including as forage plant. More recently, moringa has been recognized as a potential source of drop-in biodiesel and of biodiesel stabilizing agents. Given these and other characteristics, moringa has great economic potential and possible applicability in many areas. This work presents a brief introduction to the plant itself and its uses. In order to investigate its potential and current uses, with an eye for encumbrances to, and opportunities for, their implementation in the Brazilian market, an intellectual property (IP) landscape analysis was carried out. Sources of data used were the EPO (Europe), USPTO (US), WIPO, INPI (Brazil), CPTO (China) and TIPO (Taiwan). Of especial interest are those applications for which patent protection does not exist at all or, at least, IP protection in Brazil has not been sought.