Supreme Court won’t let farmer dodge Monsanto’s seed patents

Found on Ars Technica on Monday, 13 May 2013
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In a decision issued today, the US Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that Monsanto must be allowed to patent its seeds—and it must be able to punish farmers who try to dodge the patents.

Bowman bought Roundup Ready each year for his first crop and observed that restriction. But for his riskier second crop, he bought "commodity" soybeans that were intended for consumption, not planting. Still, he found that most of the soybeans had the Roundup Ready resistance trait because Monsanto's product is everywhere.

It is noteworthy and a bit worrisome that the court upheld a finding that Bowman was "copying" the soybeans by simply planting seeds and applying herbicide. In the court's view, that counts as "making" a new item—a patented item in this case—and so it is barred by the patent laws.

The idea of being able to patent something that's alive should be the bigger problem here. Monsanto modifies soy DNA so that it survives their chemicals, and now it's illegal to prodce offspring from the seeds the plant creates. Next we'll have patented livestock which is forbidden from breeding; and once people are treated against diseases by fixing their DNA they won't be allowed to have kids. Remember: patents are the most important thing in the universe.