Thanks for the A2 slides Mac. I now see all the patents that A2 have in Genotyping A2 animals, amongst the other IP that I wasn't fully aware of before.
My main point though still stands. I was not to seriously suggest that getting milk from buffalo is a serious threat to A2 in the United States. My point was that A1 was a genetic mutation in the first place, some five to ten thousand years ago when man was in the very early stages of farming. Animals exist that are still naturally A2. I picked on the buffalo simply because AFAIK they have never been seriously farmed by man and so are an obvious breed of 'cattle' that are likely still A2. I am not familiar enough with other bovine breeds to tell you what other A2 cattle is out there. Scottish Highland Cattle might be a more realistic example of a breed that has been more recently domesticated?
I accept all the points you have made reinforcing the strong brand protection of A2. And the likelihood that tests to determine whether particular cows are A2 also come under A2 IP and so provide an extra layer of intellectual property protection against would be A2 freeloaders.
My argument rests on the premise that A2 is the more natural beta-casein state. Thus is you have a breed of cattle that have never had the A1 mutation, there is no need to test for A1, and therefore no need to infringe any A2 patents for genotype. If a species remains such that the resulting milk is in its natural beta-casein state (dubbed A2 by A2 Milk Limited, but there is no need to call it that), then that could be a sufficient marketing message in itself.
"Quality milk unaltered by 5,000 years of the human hand"
I feel a marketing campaign coming on, that completely bypasses all of A2's IP.
SNOOPY