patent intelligence on “coffee” industry focus on “piemonte”...type of coffee container; on...

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2012

Patent Intelligence on “Coffee” Industry Focus on “Piemonte”

Landscape and explorative analyses based on patent data

Patent Intelligence on Coffee Industry Focus on Piemonte

2

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.


3

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.


4

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”).


5

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.


6

Index

Disclaim ............................................................................................................................................................................... 2

Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................................................ 3

1 Introduction and methodology ................................................................................................................................... 7

Industry identification and DB generation ........................................................................................................ 7 1.1

2 General framework ................................................................................................................................................... 10

3 Italian innovative companies: patent analytics ........................................................................................................ 12

Sample statistics .............................................................................................................................................. 14 3.1

Patent holders in Piemonte............................................................................................................................. 17 3.2

3.2.1 Lavazza ........................................................................................................................................................ 18

3.2.2 SGL Italia ..................................................................................................................................................... 19

3.2.3 Caffè Ghigo and Caffè Vergnano ................................................................................................................. 20


7

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.

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.

Industry identification and DB generation 1.1

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.

Companies in "Coffee" industry

Large Corp. - "Coffee" as one of the business segments

"Coffee" as the most relevant business

Geographical localization

Companies with patents protecting "Coffee" related inventions

Focus: Piemonte innovative companies in “coffee” industry


8

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.

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.

World companies

in CIQ

Companies in "Coffee"

industry

HQ in Italy (Focus:

Piemonte)

Companies in Piemonte

Alessi

Casa del Caffe Vergnano

Costadoro

Luigi Lavazza

SGL Italia

Province

Verbania Cusio Ossola

Torino

Torino

Torino

Asti


9

Figure 3 Process for reverse check from IPC codes to identify Italian companies in the coffee sector.

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

patents (a relevant share of their patent portfolios is

connected to the Coffee business).

The following figures help identifying the groups

selected from the different sources and how we

exploited the information from such DBs. Group 1 is

the whole list of companies resulting from CIQ as

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

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.

Most relevant IPC codes of Vergnano, Lavazza, SGL Italia,

Illy Caffè, Hausbrandt, etc.

IPC codes connected to

"Coffee" from WIPO

Patents in selected IPC

codes: search of top

assignees

World companies with patents in the selected IPC codes

Top

ass

ign

ees

(glo

bal

co

mp

anie

s)

Italian assignees

Piemonte

Originating (Lavazza, SGL Italia, ...)

Newly found (e.g.: Ghigo, ...)

906 companies

General framework description

1 83 companies

2 33 companies

3 20 companies

4 selection of top foreign assignees

Mostly MNE with multi-line of business

Basic stats as reference

5

2+3 = Italian framework (116 companies with CIQ financial data)

3+4 = Italian innovative companies

44 patentees (9 owners of other IPRs)

Companies in the Coffee industry

(CIQ)

Patentees - Coffee related IPC codes (TI)

HQ in Italy

1

2

3

4

5


10

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

founded) there are still some new entrants every year.

The total number of companies in the field is still

increasing but with a slower and slower pace, suggesting

that the industry is concentrated and even if it has not

reached its final configuration of players yet, it might be

on the point to; such stage might be characterized by a

shake-out of firms, when the number of players will tend

to reduce by selecting the best performing companies.

Other information available from CIQ deals with the

company status, their size and location. Less than 10% of

the identified companies are listed and more than 2% is

not operating (out of business).

Figure 5 Number of companies per year of foundation (“Entrants”, left axis) and cumulate value (“Cumul.”, right axis).

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 (retrieved from CIQ

8).

Characteristic Option Amount

Number of companies

910

Listed companies 76 (8%)

Company Type Operating Subsidiary or Acquired Out of Business

63% 35% 2%

Part of a group 273 (30%)

Group led by an Italian company

24 (2%)

Company size Average employees 2.406,1

Figure 6 Share of companies based on number of employees (Please note that more than 2 thirds of companies report missing data, likely SMEs).

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.

0

100

200

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0

2

4

6

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1980 1990 2000 2010

Cumul.

Entrants

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Employees

More than 250

51 - 250

11 - 50

1 - 10


11

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) broken down by HQs.

Figure 9 Number of Italian coffee companies broken down by region of HQs (CIQ data).

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.

United States 24%

Italy 15%

Germany 5% Spain

5% Japan

4%

Brazil 3%

Others (72) 44%

Lombardia; 33

Emilia Romagna; 27

Veneto; 18

Campania; 8

Lazio; 8

Marche; 7

Toscana; 6

Piemonte; 5

Puglia; 5

Friuli Venezia Giulia; 5

Sicilia; 4

Abruzzo; 3 Calabria; 2 Liguria; 2


12

Figure 10 Primary industry of the companies in the coffee sample (CIQ data).

Figure 11 Business activities of the firms in the coffee sample (CIQ data).

3 Italian innovative companies: patent analytics

In this section we will focus on Italy and in particular on

companies in Piemonte region. As previously described,

the process to select the analyzed companies starts from

those in the coffee industry; we then take into account

only those with HQs in Italy and holding at least one

patent.

In this general approach we exclude design and utility

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.

Packaged Foods and

Meats 92%

Industrial Machinery

2%

Household Appl.s

1%

Others 5%

0 200 400 600 800 1000

Consumer Staples

Food, Beverage and Tobacco

Food Products

Packaged Foods and Meats

Coffee

Tea

Prepared and Preserved Foods

Confectionery Products

Seasonings and Preservatives

Bread and Bakery Products

Patent assignees (exclusion of design and utility models)

Innovative (own at least 1 patent documents)

Italy

Coffee industry


13

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


14

Sample statistics 3.1

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 (last 2 years are not shown due to high level of missing data).

Figure 13 Total number of inventions (counted as patent families) per earliest priority year.

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

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Inventions

http://www.epo.org/searching/essentials/patent-families.html

http://www.epo.org/searching/essentials/patent-families.html


15

Figure 14 Aggregate share of publication patent offices in the considered years in terms of number of filings.

Figure 15 Trend of applications filed at the top 5 patent offices in the years 1991 - 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 average more than two patent families per year).

Table 3 Top IPC subclasses in the time window 1991 – 2010: codes and brief descriptions.

IPC subclass Description

A47J Kitchen equipment; coffee mills; spice mills; apparatus for making beverages

B56B Machines, apparatus or methods of, packaging articles or materials; unpacking

B65D Containers for storage or transport of articles, e.g. bags, bottles, boxes, cans, cartons, crates; packaging elements […]

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.

EP 21%

IT 16%

DE 10% WO

9%

US 9%

ES 5%

AT 5%

CA 3%

AU 3%

PT 2%

Other 17%

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

19

911

992

19

931

994

19

951

996

19

971

998

19

992

000

20

012

002

20

032

004

20

052

006

20

072

008

20

09

EP

IT

WO

US

DE

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009

A47J

B65B

B65D


16

Figure 17 Top IPC codes in the time window 2000 – 2010 in terms of yearly inventions (at least 2 patent families per year).

Table 4 Top IPC codes in the time window 2000 – 2010: codes and brief descriptions.

IPC code Description

A47J 31/40

Beverage-making apparatus with dispensing means for adding a measured quantity of ingredients, e.g. coffee, water, sugar, cocoa, milk, tea

A47J 31/44

Parts or details of beverage-making apparatus

A47J 31/36

Apparatus for making beverages with mechanical pressure-producing means

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 (reference year: 1990 equal to 100%).

Figure 19 Changes in the average number of claims (reference year: 1990 equal to 100%).

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.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

A47J003140

A47J003144

A47J003136

70%

80%

90%

100%

110%

120%

130%

Assignees

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%

140%

160%

Claims


17

Figure 20 Changes in the average number of IPC codes assigned to patents (reference year: 1990 equal to 100%).

A similar analysis can be carried on the number of different IPC codes assigned to patented inventions. In this case, the higher the number of technology categories the higher the probability that the corresponding inventions is very fundamental and might be applied to several technical domains.

The relative trend of the number of IPC codes compared to year 1990 oscillates until 2010. The increase between 1995 and 2003 suggests the development of inventions with less specific fields of application; on the contrary the recent years describe a pattern where the protected inventions are connected to more specific and, probably, more incremental inventions.

Patent holders in Piemonte 3.2

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.

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%

140%

160%

180%

IPC scope


18

Table 5 Number of patents in the most relevant IPC codes for the selected companies

IPC Description Focus of invention

SG

L Ita

lia

La

vazza

Hau

sb

ran

dt

Tri

este

Illy

Caff

è

Seg

afr

ed

o

Za

nett

i

A47J 31/06 Apparatus for making beverages; Filters or strainers for coffee or tea makers

Coff

ee-m

akin

g m

achin

e 53 58 5 9

A47J 31/24 Coffee-making apparatus in which hot water is passed through the filter under pressure

2 36 4 6

A47J 31/36 Coffee-making apparatus in which hot water is passed through the filter under pressure (liquid or mechanical pressure-producing means)

76 25 2 31

A47J 31/40 Beverage-making apparatus with dispensing means for adding a measured quantity of ingredients, e.g. coffee, water, sugar, cocoa, milk, tea

113 62 28 13

A47J 31/44 Parts or details of beverage-making apparatus 30 15 4 9

B65D 06/40 Containers having bodies formed by interconnecting two or more rigid, or substantially rigid, components […] with walls formed with filling or emptying apertures

Conta

iner,

cart

rid

ge,

capsule

38

B65D 81/00 Containers […] for contents presenting particular transport or storage problems, or adapted to be used for non-packaging purposes after removal of contents

46 38 3 2

B65D 81/34 Containers […] for packaging foodstuffs intended to be cooked or heated within the package

36

2

B65D 85/804 Disposable containers or packages with contents which are infused or dissolved in situ

62 38 1 4

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.


19

Figure 21

Table 6 Top IPC subclasses from 1970: codes and descriptions.

IPC subclasses Description


A23F Coffee; tea; their substitutes; manufacture, preparation, or infusion thereof

B65D Containers for storage or transport of articles, e.g. bags, bottles, boxes, cans, cartons, crates; packaging elements […]

G07F, H02M, E01Q, B60Q

[These subclasses are related to the sub-components of the apparatus for coffee-making]

Figure 22

Table 7 Top IPC codes from 1970 (group level).


A47J 31


B65D 85

Containers, packaging elements or packages, specially adapted for particular articles or materials

A47J 43

Implements for preparing or holding food […]

G07F 11, H02M 07

[These subclasses are related to the sub-components 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).

A47JA23F

B65DG07F

H02ME01H

B60QOther

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

1970s1980s1990s 2000s 2010s

A47J0031G07F0011

B65D0085A47J0043

H02M0007Other

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s


20

Figure 23

Table 8 Top IPC subclasses from 2000: codes and descriptions.

IPC subclasses Description


F16L pipes; joints or fittings for pipes; supports for pipes, cables or protective tubing; means for thermal insulation in general

A23F Coffee; tea; their substitutes; manufacture, preparation, or infusion thereof

A23L, C02F [These subclasses are related to food and water treatment]

Figure 24

Table 9 Top IPC codes from 1970 (group level).


A47J 31


F16L 37

Couplings of the quick-acting type

A23F 05

Coffee; Coffee substitutes; Preparations thereof

C02F 01, A23L 02

[These subclasses are related to water and non-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.

A47JF16L

A23F

A23L

C02F0

5

10

15

20

25

30

2000s2010s

A47J0031F16L0037

A23F0005

C02F0001

A23L00020

5

10

15

20

25

30

2000s2010s


21

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 ).

http://www.iam-magazine.com/reports/Detail.aspx?g=a4f69e1c-2335-4371-ba22-ec7c290d998f

patent intelligence on “coffee” industry focus on “piemonte”...type of coffee container; on...

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