Utilizing trade secrets to protect and improve fava bean characteristics

When developing new intellectual property, companies are faced with a number of choices for how to protect it. Generally, the best comes down to what they’re wanting to protect, and how they might want to market it in the future.

Sometimes, the choice is easy—as it was for the team at Prairie Fava when they developed the intellectual property related to the fava bean ingredient project they embarked on with Roquette in 2020. Prairie Fava is supplying the fava beans Roquette is using to test and market new ingredients for use in plant-based foods. The feedback loop they’ve developed has been beneficial to both companies, allowing them to improve their intellectual property while still protecting it.

“Roquette has provided important information on processing that is assisting in our product development,” Prairie Fava co-founder and CEO Hailey Jefferies said. “This has saved us time, effort and money.”

The product Prairie Fava is developing on their end of the project is primarily derived from the fava bean variety DL Rico, which was developed by DL Seeds and is exclusively licensed to Prairie Fava. This variety is low vicine and low convicine, and offers promising results for use in plant-based foods and ingredients.

They’ve employed a trade-secret method of protecting the intellectual property related to the processing and ingredient uses for DL Rico, as well as to the dehulling and cleaning of fava beans in general. Jefferies explained that this method of protection has allowed the company to keep their formulations and technology safe, while still being able to improve upon it.

“In order to continuously improve on the quality of the product that we provide our customers, the Protein Industries Canada project has allowed us to optimize dehulling such that we have increased protein and reduced residual hull, or fibre, in our products,” Jefferies said. “Trade secrets are very important in this regard. The market is competitive, and we are striving to establish a reputation for the highest quality fava available – which means cleaner, higher protein and lower fibre splits and flour.”

Using trade secrets as the primary classification in their intellectual property strategy has served the Prairie Fava team well so far. So well that the team intends to continue using them for new intellectual property as they develop it—and they recommend other businesses considering trade secret strategies move ahead with utilizing them, too.

“Trade secrets are an important and cost-effective form of intellectual property,” Jefferies said. “They allow a company to continuously evolve and produce higher quality product and improve competitiveness.”