Supreme Court to Hear Challenge to Monsanto Seed Patents

[JRLeft]

Source: Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear an Indiana farmer's appeal that challenges the scope of Monsanto Co.'s MON +0.57% patent rights on its Roundup Ready seeds.

The company, whose genetically modified seeds produce crops that are resistant to herbicide, has required farmers to use the patented seeds only for a single crop and not save the "second-generation" seeds from the harvest.

Monsanto has imposed the terms because its technology reproduces itself in each generation of seeds. If farmers could replant seeds taken from each harvest, they could avoid paying for Monsanto's technology in future plantings, the company says.

In a short written order, the Supreme Court said it would consider the planting tactics of Indiana farmer Vernon Bowman, who appealed to the justices after Monsanto successfully sued him for patent infringement in the lower courts.

For several years, Mr. Bowman purchased Monsanto-licensed seed for his first seasonal soybean crop and abided by the agreement not to save second-generation seeds. But for his late season "second crop" of soybeans, Mr. Bowman tried a different approach: he bought and planted "commodity seeds" from a grain elevator. Those soybean seeds were a mix and included some that contained Monsanto's technology. He chose to save the seeds from those second-crop harvests, which he used in subsequent years.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443768804578038801313993688.html

[louis-t]

1. We know how this one will turn out.

5-4 in favor of Monsanto.

[JRLeft]

2. It could not turn out any other way. Not with this court.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

3. Uh-huh. With our Corporate Teabagger-infested crap court...

...we know how that will go. Pfft.

[Junkdrawer]

4. Does Vegas Book Supreme Court Rulings?

Wonder what that poor farmers odds are? 100:1 1000:1

Control of the world's food supply is one of the pillars of Pax Americana - or at least that's how the Owner Class sees it.

[DhhD]

5. Only God and Mother Earth control the wind, pollinating insects and birds that fly or migrate.

How about the crop planted BEFORE the seeds with inserted genes? Did Monsanto come out and remove the soil to sterilize it? Plants cells are capable of polyploidy: Monsanto crop left a free copy for the process of polyploidy. Wild corn is very small: polyploidy makes corn large. Polyploidy makes a copy. Monsanto does not own the Plantae Kingdom. Which kernel in the field under went polyploidy without Monsanto's permission? Frivolous law suite.

[Coexist]

6. I would love for Monsanto to go down

[Qutzupalotl]

7. God should sue Monsanto for patent infringement.

Their technology borrows heavily from his framework.

[lovuian]

8. Monsanto will go down ....the Supreme court can't protect it

in Europe Russia France and Canada and South Ameirca and India

and China

the US farmers will be destroyed by Monsanto's monopoly and the other countries will profit in this destruction

[99th_Monkey]

9. Well, at least SCOTUS is hearing it.

they could have just let the lower court ruling for Monsanto stand.

[bunnies]

10. So now monsantos poison seeds are mixed with regular seeds.

Fantastic. We'll never get this shit out of our food supply. NEVER.

[byeya]

11. I wonder how many farmers are using seeds from one season to the next and being quiet

about it?
Does Monsanto have a police force?
It seems to me to be an expensive proposition to do a DNA analysis on a farmer's crop to see if an agreement was breeched. And, with the cross pollinization of crops, who is to say definitively that the seeds were Monsantos but the money-tribute was not paid.

Lastly, I though farmers were supposed to be independent - that's why they vore Republican. Surely there's a way around this Monsanto crap on the ground by individual farmers. No? Maybe?

We'd be better off without GMOs and better off without Monsanto.