Science – Munich – Patent dispute over specially fed fish – Bavaria
Munich (dpa) – The opposition department of the European Patent Office (EPA) is negotiating on Tuesday whether a certain feeding of farmed salmon and trout can be an invention. The organization “No patents on seeds” has filed an objection to the patent EP1965658, as its spokesman Christoph Then announced on Monday. The Australian Authority for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIRO) has held the patent since 2018, which also carried out research.
“If the patent were validated, it would have a signal effect. Because then it would be very easy to get such a patent,” said Then. Theoretically, certain forms of husbandry and the resulting animals including schnitzel and fillets could then be patentable if the husbandry has an influence on the quality of products such as meat, milk and eggs.
In the controversial fish patent, certain plants such as predatory-leaf-fed salmon and trout have an increased proportion of omega-3 fatty acids in their meat – similar to those caught in the wild. In aquaculture, only fish fed with fishmeal achieved comparable values, which are then not considered sustainably produced, said Then.
Years ago several patents were registered for feeding chickens, pigs and fish, which were supposed to extend to schnitzel or fish fingers made from them. These registrations therefore all follow a similar pattern: starting from the feed, food should be requested that is obtained from animals fed in this way. After these patent applications were made public, most of these applications were not even brought into the EPO’s examination phase, explained Then.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 211115-99-01648 / 2