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Feb. 14, 2013 Agri-Pulse reports: The Supreme Court will hear arguments Feb. 19 from both sides of a patent case involving Monsanto and an Indiana soybean farmer. The case questions the scope of patent protection for self-replicating genetically engineered seeds, but has far-reaching implications for genetically-modified fish, bioengineered medicines and other high-tech research investments. Vernon Hugh Bowman, a 75 year old farmer in Indiana, began purchasing commodity seed from a grain elevator in 1999. Although typically used for feed rations, Bowman planted the seed and found that some of the purchased seeds contained Monsanto's Roundup Ready (RR) trait. He continued to save the soybeans with the patented trait that resists Roundup weed killer. "I have been buying soybeans from an elevator for planting after wheat," said Bowman in a 2007 letter to Monsanto, according to the Bowman court brief. "There is no way of knowing what variety I have planted. However, most of the soybeans I have purchased turned out to be resistant to the Roundup related chemicals." In the letter, he said the commodity beans he bought turned out to be mostly RR beans "as I had hoped," and that he saved some of these beans for seed. The main issue the Supreme Court justices face is whether the first authorized sale of the patented product exhausts, or ends, Monsanto's patent rights over the next generations grown from the seed. Bowman lost in a federal district court and on appeal, where the court found Monsanto is entitled to damages for patent infringement. Bowman and his supporters believe the courts in the federal circuit mistakenly ruled in favor of Monsanto, and that legal contracts instead of patent rights should provide sufficient protection for the company's technology. The National Farmers Union, along with other organizations, stated in an amicus brief that the federal court created an expanded right regarding the patented "self-replicating" soybean seed, which "has foreclosed the ability of the courts to look critically at the reasonableness of Monsanto's restraints on replanting." Bowman's supporters also include Food & Water Watch, Organization for Competitive Markets and the National Family Farm Coalition. The Center for Food Safety and Save Our Seeds also filed an amicus brief in support of Bowman. However, a support amicus brief for Monsanto filed by several economists states that contract law is not sufficient in cases of self-replicating technology like the varietal soybean seed. Monsanto's supporters include the American Soybean Association, National Corn Growers Association, National Association of Wheat Growers, American Sugarbeet Growers Association, Tweet |
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