Let's Patent Pigs!

W have this patent office here in US which is obviously malfunctioning in a very bad way lately. But it seems that we also need to keep an eye on these guys.

Apparently, a company called Monsanto has decided to patent pigs and pig breeding. Greenpeace is up in arms about this. If you don't believe me read the patent and the article:

• Claim 16 asks for a patent on: "A pig offspring produced by a method ..."
• Claim 17 asks for a patent on: "A pig herd having an increased frequency of a specific gene..."
• Claim 23 asks for a patent on: "A pig population produced by the method..."
• Claim 30 asks for a patent on: "A swine herd produced by a method..."

This means the pigs, their offspring, and the use of the genetic information for breeding will be entirely owned by Monsanto, Inc. and any replication or infringement of their patent by man or beast will mean royalties or jail for the offending swine.

If this does not sound ridiculous to you, then you then you probably either work for Monsanto (read, you will profit from this patent) or for USPTO (read you just don't know any better) :P

Story found via boingboing.

Tags: patents, wipo, monsanto, monsanto patents, monsanto pig patent, pig patent