The term refers to a patent claim on a technology that is already widely used by competitors. When the surprise monopoly surfaces, the patent holder is positioned to demand licensing fees and royalties from its competitors - or to deny access to the technology altogether. It's not the first time that Mighty Monsanto has torpedoed its competition. For example, industry analysts speculate that AgrEvo's herbicide tolerant soybean program was stopped dead in the water after Monsanto's CaMV 35S promoter patent issued. Barton refers to Monsanto's new patent as only the most recent in a line of extremely broad patents covering biotech's most basic enabling technologies.
Genetic engineering is an imprecise technology.
Antibiotic resistance markers, or selectable markers, are routinely used by genetic engineers because they provide a cheap and easy way to find out whether a new gene has been successfully transferred to a plant cell. Scientists commonly introduce antibiotic resistance marker genes along with the primary gene of interest. To identify the cells that have been successfully transformed, scientists simply expose all the cells to the antibiotic and only the cells that have the antibiotic resistant marker gene will continue to grow. If the marker gene is present, so is the new gene. The use of antibiotic resistance markers is controversial.