[News Space=Reporter seungwon lee] Seoul Milk Cooperative (Chairman Moon Jin-seop) announced on the 25th that as a result of filing a request for invalidation of a Korean patent registered by The a2 Milk Company (hereinafter referred to as The a2 Company) of New Zealand based on its own research results on the A2 protein, the patent registration invalidation was accepted.

Regular milk contains both A1 and A2 proteins, but 'A2 milk' refers to milk that contains only A2 protein. Some studies have shown that A2 protein can be more easily digested than A1 protein, and The a2 Company has patented this beneficial aspect of 'A2 milk' in several countries and has led the 'A2 milk' market.

Accordingly, Seoul Milk filed a patent registration invalidation trial, emphasizing that the unique characteristics of A2 protein are not technologies that can be exclusively protected by a specific company.

As a result, on the 19th, the Patent Examination Board ruled that all claims of each of the two South Korean patents held by The a2 Company were invalid. The reason for the ruling stated that the patents were not technically different from existing research, lacked progressiveness, and above all, the digestibility of A2 protein was already a generally known characteristic, so they could not be recognized as patentable technology.

A Seoul Milk official said, “With this decision, the growth of A2 milk in the domestic dairy industry is expected to accelerate,” and added, “Seoul Milk is leading the domestic A2 milk market with ‘A2+ Milk,’ and we will continue to introduce A2 milk products that consumers trust based on differentiated quality and excellent raw milk.”

Meanwhile, Seoul Milk launched 'A2+ Milk' containing 100% A2 protein by separating and collecting only cows with A2 protein genetic traits in April of last year, and it is receiving a good response. In fact, 'A2+ Milk' has sold over 37.5 million units since its launch. In the future, Seoul Milk plans to continuously expand the number of farms dedicated to A2 raw milk and also accelerate the development of various products centered on A2 raw milk.