PATENT ANALYSIS OF DEVICES FOR MECHANIZING THE COFFEE HARVEST
Coffe; Harvesting; Patents.
Coffee is one of the most important agribusiness crops in Brazil, the country is one of the largest producers, exporters and consumers of the beverage. The objective of the study is to perform a Technological Prospecting of technologies for coffee harvesting and identify those registered in the national office, main depositors and technological evolution of the sector. The methodology will be based on quantitative research, documentary analysis in patent databases of the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI), the Latin LATIPAT database, and the international Orbit Intelligence database, using the IPC (International Patents Code) code for coffee harvesting devices and keywords. The project is feasible because Brazil is prominent in research on coffee growing, which facilitates the consultation of materials of this nature and there is scientific interest in studying coffee in all its dimensions. Access to the BPTO database is free, which allows access, manipulation and analysis of the documents. With the results, it is hoped to survey the patents registered in the period, identify the applicants, and draw up a report with the technological evolution. As a conclusion of the study, it is expected to know the state of the art for coffee harvesting equipment in Brazil and thus generate subsidies for Research & Development (R&D) organizations of agricultural machinery, whether in the development of new technologies, the identification of commercial partners or for technology transfer.