Species of the genus Ganoderma have been used in traditional medicine for centuries and is now a strategic biotechnological resource. Despite its importance, no comprehensive patent analysis has mapped its technological development. This study aimed to clarify the global status, maturity, and innovation frontiers, providing a basis for future advancements. Patent data up to 2025 were analyzed, resulting in 17,920 patent families, using lifecycle modeling, mapping, profiling, and IPC domain analysis. It also compared keyword extraction methods (TF-IDF, KeyBERT) with a Large Language Model (Meta-Llama 3.2-1B), which outperformed traditional methods in generating domain-specific keywords. Patent activity had three phases: emergence (1979-2009), exponential growth (2000-2018), and maturity (2018-2026), with saturation around 2035. China led patenting, followed by Korea, Japan, and the US. Most patents were held by private companies, with academic institutions contributing R&D. IPC analysis indicates a transition from formulation-based technologies (A61K, A61P, A23L), which peaked between 2010 and 2015, toward sustained growth in biotechnological and processing domains (C12N, C12R, B01D, C08B) from 2014 onward. The findings show a mature yet evolving ecosystem, with Ganoderma mushrooms technologies moving from traditional pharmacology to bioprocess and bioeconomy applications.
Foffano et al. (2026) studied this question.