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    Agriculture (Agri-Tech)

 

  • Agri-tech (or agritech or agricultural technology) encompasses all innovative activities that combine science and technology to improve the efficiency, healthiness, maintenance and total yield of animals, farming and planting production operations, and includes the concept of smart farming (or precision farming), a farming management concept that utilizes modern-day digital technologies in everyday agricultural production, thus providing the farmers with actionable information about their crops and livestock, so they can use such information to improve the quantity and quality of their food production.

 

  • The main legal issues involved in agri-tech are: contracts; data privacy; data security; intellectual property (IP); and, regulatory compliance.

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  • Typical agri-tech-related IP tasks may include: advertising and labeling; agricultural licensing; artificial intelligence (AI) development; branding and trademarks; co-promotion agreements; competitive landscape audits; cold chain monitoring; copyrights; country-of-origin labeling; customer loyalty programs; data commercialization; design rights; distribution and sales; domestic and international patent procurement; due diligence for mergers and acquisitions; e-commerce agreements; freedom-to-operate analysis; invention disclosure analysis; IP assignment agreements; IP licensing; license agreement drafting and negotiation; litigation defense and management; marketing; research and development; software development; patentability searches; portfolio planning; royalty stream monetization; trade dress; trade secrets; trademarks; utility patents.

 

  • Examples of innovative agri-tech efforts include: agricultural software platforms in communication with drones and in-ground sensors to continuously monitor crop growth, livestock health and location, soil moisture content, water consumption, water flow rate and water ecosystems; bee vaccines to protect bees from certain diseases; (CRISPR) research into deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequences to enable the editing of genes for the improvement of all plant and animal; early-warning micro-sensors to protect beehives from invasion by predatory insects and also to monitor the health of the bees; hybrid seed experimentation; processes to create usable products from animal slaughtering waste; purposeful genetic improvement of certain bugs to replace non-organic pesticides for certain crops; rapid-response kits for spot-testing of certain crops, with Bluetooth or wi-fi connection to a central database for comparison to historical data for nutritional recommendations; replacement of certain pesticides with insects which are natural predators to certain insect pests; nano-satellite cluster technology that can continuously-monitor areas of land from thousands of acres down to even a particular acre and provide crop health, photos andsoil information; precision irrigation and soil moisture content solutions; scientifically-improved amoeba to improve disease resistance in certain crops.

 

  • Some representative technologies used in agri-tech solutions include: automated in-ground irrigation systems or warning sensors to direct irrigation vehicles to particular areas; bio-tech; drones; IoT-based sensor networks; satellite photography and sensors; smart hardware devices connected to intelligent analysis software programs to detect and predict disease, pests, soil management and other issues utilizing data analytics; weather forecasts.

 

  • Although the agri-tech business generally involves crop technologies, food issues, precision agriculture and soil technologies, there are also typical ancillary legal issues related to agri-tech, such as: commercial finance; data privacy; data security; dispute resolution; financing; initial public offerings (IPOs); IP strategy and management (including copyrights, patents, trademarks, websites and IP portfolio management); litigation; mergers and acquisitions (M&A); negotiation and drafting agreements (such as for data transfer, data use, licensing, online privacy, smart-phone app users, storing data on cloud platforms); product advertising claims and labeling; regulatory compliance; venture capital.

 

  • Representation for innovative established and startup companies, such as those: developing agronomic, arboricultural and horticultural and transgenic crops; performing genomic engineering; germplasms improvement; using algorithms to improve plant breeding efficiency; doing predictive crop modeling; enabling remote sensing; using drones for unmanned vehicle data gathering; experimenting to improve microbiomes (bacteria, fungi, protozoa and viruses that live on and inside the human body); developing plant enhancing microbial compositions that can serve as alternatives to traditional synthetic compounds in agricultural applications; experimenting with biofuels utilizing transgenic yeast or algae; creating products through microbial engineering.

 

  • Representation for financing efforts, such as: Rule 144A offerings; Series A through E funding.

 

  • Research, testing, use, recommendation, specification and procurement of various precision agriculture (PA) software platforms –  designed to maximize crop revenue and yield, as a result of the application of site-relevant data derived from many external sources providing information such as the ideal planting schedule, daily and weekly crop maintenance instructions, and relevant environmental factors that could impact a given crop, and also may include extremely specialized information such as predictive analytics features including expected profitability (based on current market prices), yield size and waste, and must have the sophistication to determine ideal planting and harvesting schedules based on factors such as anticipated weather and historical yield data in the immediate area, to connect and integrate with numerous data sources, to make recommendations about particular crops to be harvested in a particular order based on current environmental and market conditions and to suggest various ways to optimize revenue and yield for each crop (such as seeding plans and space utilization) – such as, Adapt-N, ADAPTik, agAnytime agTools, AGERpoint, AGRI-DATA, Agri-SCM, Ag Leader Yield Monitoring, AgOS Suite, Agralogics, Agrando, AGRanger, Agremo, agreo, Agrian, Agrinavia FIELD, agriPORT, AgriTask, AgriTrack, AgroCares Nutrient Scanner, AgroGuide, Agroop Cooperation, AgroPro, AgroPal, AgroSense, AgSolver, AgStudio, aWhere, bovcontrol, Cash Manager Focus, Chetu Precision Agriculture Software Solutions, Climate FieldView, Crop Planner, CropLogic realTime, CropMetrics, CropTrak, Cropwin, CropZilla, DataGreen Solutions, Earthtech, ec2ce, Encirca, Envi Crop Science, ExactFarming, Famous, Farmbox, FARMDOK, FarmERP, Farmers Business Network, farmNXT, FarmRite, FARMserver, FBN Analytics, FieldAlytics, FieldRx, FieldX, FluroSat, Gamaya, Gatekeeper, GeoVisual Analytics, GreenFingers Mobile, Harvest Supervisor Software, HeavyConnect, Ida, iNDIGO, Kamatan for Farmers, Kingswood Suite, KisanHub, Knode, Land.db, LandMagic Suite, lean farming, Mergdata, Meteobot App, Morning Farm Report, Mprise Agriware, MyAgCentral, MyAgData, My Field Crop Software, Omicafarm, oneWeigh, OnFarm, PAM Suite, PANTHEON Farming, Pennent Mill Manager, Phoenix Farms Financials, Pix4Dag, Plantator System, Platfarm, PMG Farm Opitimizer, Premier Suite, Precision Agriculture Farm Services, Precision Pass, Pro Harvest, Proagrica Agronomy Solutions, Prospera, RAMAS IRM, S4 Agtech, ScoutPro, ScoutPro, senseFly, SigaField, Sirrus, SlantRange, SmartFarm, SmartFarm, SoilMap, solverpod analytics, Strider Agriculture, Trimble Suite, WineFlight, Zoner.

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    Last updated 201206_2119

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