Supreme Court Considers GM Crop Patent Case

[MindMover]

Can a farmer commit patent infringement just by planting soybeans he bought on the open market? This week, the Supreme Court asked the Obama administration to weigh in on the question. The Court is pondering an appeals court decision saying that such planting can, in fact, infringe patents.

In 1994, the agricultural giant Monsanto obtained a patent covering a line of “Roundup Ready” crops that had been genetically modified to resist Monsanto’s Roundup pesticides. This genetic modification is hereditary, so future generations of seeds are also “Roundup Ready.” Farmers had only to save a portion of their crop for re-planting the next season, and they wouldn’t need to purchase new seed from Monsanto every year. The company didn’t want to be in the business of making a one-time sale, so when Monsanto sold “Roundup Ready” soybeans to farmers, it required them to sign a licensing agreement promising not to re-plant future generations of seeds.

However, farmers remain free to sell the soybeans they grow in the commodity market, where most are used to feed people or livestock. Roundup Ready soybeans have become extremely popular; they now account for 94 percent of all acres planted in Indiana, for instance. Vernon Bowman, an Indiana farmer, was a customer of Monsanto who realized that Roundup Ready soybeans had become so common in his area that if he simply purchased commodity soybeans from a local grain elevator, the overwhelming majority of those soybeans would be Roundup Ready. Commodity soybeans are significantly cheaper than Monsanto’s soybeans, and they came without the contractual restriction on re-planting.

So Bowman planted (and re-planted) commodity soybeans instead of using Monsanto’s seeds. When Monsanto discovered what Bowman was doing, it sued him for patent infringement.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/04/arstechnica-agriculture-patents/?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/41483660@N04/6685665955/][img][/img][/url]
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/41483660@N04/6685665955/]monsantoland[/url]

[Poll_Blind]

1. The Supreme Court usually takes on a decision like then, from a lower court, when they want to...

...either modify, clarify or toss out the ruling. But never, AFAIK, to go "Appeals court, you nailed it!"

I have little doubt the Obama administration will do everything they can to toe Monsanto's line. Since the nature of this case, at least based on the excerpt, involves a contract between a farmer and Monsanto I can only assume the party in jeopardy to be the original farmer. I can't imagine that a farmer purchasing these seeds could be in jeopardy...but that is up to the court to decide I suppose.

The copyright angle is strange but not unusual nowdays. If the seeds reproduce themselves I cannot imagine the court would find against a farmer growing them, per se, as that is their intended use. It also seems unusually onerous to put the burden of copyright on a farmer for things his plant may do, ultimately without his assistance.

I mean, DVDs don't copy themselves when you play them. Books don't copy themselves during the process of reading. But plants reproduce themselves during the process of their growth and life cycle and so it's hard to imagine they would find it reasonable to burden the farmer too heavily. Breaking the contract intentionally is another matter.

PB

[maggiesfarmer]

2. yes, plants grow themselves, but not in neat rows all along a tilled field

IANAL, but it sounds like using that as a defense is going to go over as well as the guy who claims the marijuana plant in his back yard grew by accident

[MindMover]

4. She Didn't Know They Were Marijuana Seeds......

http://www.wtae.com/r/30141636/detail.html

[freshwest]

3. I don't eat soy if I can avoid it for this reason alone. Pretty hard to miss nowadays.

[russspeakeasy]

5. Monsanto should be sued out of business.

Monsanto and Dow are two of the biggest polluters worldwide.