Acquired from Monsanto in 2007 by US firm Newsham Genetics, the patent describes a gene selection process that helps farmers to breed pigs with high meat quality. European farming groups had raised concerns that they would have to pay royalties to Newsham for rearing breeds with the relevant gene. However, CIPA biotech spokesman Jon Gowshall has told the EU farming community that only the process is patented, not the genes or animals.

Farmers' worries over the patent culminated in a demonstration on Wednesday 15 April, in which representatives from a range of interest groups converged on the Munich branch of the European Patent Office (EPO). Heralding the march, German Farming Association chief Gerd Sonnleitner told the press: 'Corporations are always trying to bypass the regulations to achieve access to animals and plants. For this reason all legal loopholes should be closed at EU level so large companies do not dictate what is bred and what lands up on consumers' plates.'

Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) backed Sonnleitner's view at the march. In a speech, Stallman compared the IP issues in his specialist field of software writing with those facing farmers, telling his audience: 'Patents on plants and animals attack farmers as they try to do the farming.'

However, according to Gowshall a member of CIPA's Biotechnology Committee patenting a species of pig was never part of Monsanto's or Newsham's agenda. 'Pig breeders will not have to pay royalties just because their animals have the same genetic trait as the one described in the patent. Only the selection process is patented. Neither the gene itself, its sequence, the kit used, nor any animal identified by the method are protected by the patent.'

'To put it simply, pig breeders who use the particular test specified in the patent are likely to have to pay royalties to Newsham Genetics. But if they use other methods to select pigs that carry the gene specified in the patent, they won't have to pay. The gene itself isn't patented and, in Europe, you can patent an animal only if it is transgenic that is, an animal with an artificially modified gene. Therefore pig breeders will not have to pay a royalty to Newsham Genetics for the pigs themselves only if they use the patented test to select them.'

In a statement on the patent (EP 1,651,777), the EPO said: 'Following examination, only the claims relating to the screening method remained as a patented invention; the claims relating to animals (pigs), the gene sequences and the test kit are not part of the granted patent.'

The farmers' march had been timed to turn media attention onto the EPO deadline for submitting opposition papers against the patent. In Gowshall's analysis, the EPO is committed to taking the documents seriously: 'Wednesday [15 April] was the day before the deadline for submitting objections to the EPO, who have said that the pig farmers' comments will be considered, along with the 13 formal oppositions they have received.'