Polyhydroxy alkanoates (PHA) are the go-to material for future packaging.  Almost a year and a half after Patent Forecast®  recognized the Nestle and Danimer Scientific partnership in January of 2019, Nestle still lacks a product and appears to have competition.

Cove entered into an exclusive partnership with RWDC Industries for RWDC to supply its proprietary PHA to produce Cove’s water bottles. Cove worked with many PHA producers, but determined that RWDC was the most ready to handle its aggressive growth (e.g. Cove will obtain 350 million pounds of PHA over the course of five years). This partnership is a huge deal as it gives Cove the exclusive rights to Solon™, RWDC’s biodegradable and safe single-use alternative to petroleum-derived plastics, for beverage bottles. One reason for the RWDC and Cove partnership is Cove’s patent assets. Cove currently has two U.S. applications related to a biodegradable bottle as well as a PCT filing.  Cove is going global with its patent portfolio so RWDC may have seen this as a great opportunity to get onboard.

The patent assets are a bigger deal than at first glance because Nestle and Danimer Scientific do not have patent assets directed towards a container/water bottle made from PHA. Additionally, Danimer Scientific has partnered with Bacardi to use a PHA biopolymer to create bottles for Bacardi’s supply chain. While this is amazing news for the environment, Bacardi doesn’t have patent protection for a PHA container so it could be susceptible to Cove in the future. 

Check out the Biodegradable Packaging Patent Forecast® to see if Cove continues to expand its portfolio and who else might be developing a PHA container.