[PassedOut]

kenberg, on 2013-February-16, 16:13, said:

All of this may be true, I don't know a lot about it. But the case in question does not address any of these issues. The farmer does not want to stop using Mosanto products, he simply wants to get them on the cheap.

Are seeds produced by plants grown from Monsanto seeds also "Monsanto products?" What about seeds produced by hybrids containing genetic material from seeds created by more than one corporation? How much should patent protection infringe upon the rights of legal buyers of those seeds?

Monsanto argues -- and lower courts have agreed -- that the normal patent exhaustion restrictions don't apply to Monsanto's seeds. I hope that the Supreme Court restores common sense in this matter. And I doubt that the court would have agreed to hear the case if there were no chance of that.

BOWMAN v. MONSANTO

Of course Monsanto could have used contracts to enforce its wishes, but has chosen to rely upon patent infringement instead. Is a farmer who has violated no agreement with Monsanto nevertheless subject to extortion by means of an unreasonable extension of patent protection? I guess we will find out.

[mike777]

I think you raise one of the key points.....can i turn around and sell or do whatever I please with second generation seeds..in other words buy one bag of seeds and then resell second or third or fourth generation seeds to whoever for whatever reasons?


second generation is about 6 months later.....every generation =about 6 months of growth. Some may argue that these are simple basic copies of the the first patented seed others may say they are an improvement or not a copy or it does not matter.
If I resell a piece of Art or resell my car I get to keep all the profits or do I?



Let us assume I did not even honestly know they were your first generation seeds in the first place.


All I want to do is sell these Soybean seeds to my county and state farmer neighbors.

[PassedOut]

mike777, on 2013-February-17, 00:41, said:

I think you raise one of the key points.....can i turn around and sell or do whatever I please with second generation seeds..in other words buy one bag of seeds and then resell second or third or fourth generation seeds to whoever for whatever reasons?

second generation is about 6 months later.....every generation =about 6 months of growth. Some may argue that these are simple basic copies of the the first patented seed others may say they are an improvement or not a copy or it does not matter.
If I resell a piece of Art or resell my car I get to keep all the profits or do I?

Looks like farmer Bowman won't beat Monsanto on this one: Supreme Court Appears to Defend Patent on Soybean

Quote

WASHINGTON — A freewheeling and almost entirely one-sided argument at the Supreme Court on Tuesday indicated that the justices would not allow Monsanto’s patents for genetically altered soybeans to be threatened by an Indiana farmer who used them without paying the company a fee.

The question in the case, Bowman v. Monsanto Company, No. 11-796, was whether patent rights to seeds and other things that can replicate themselves extend beyond the first generation. The justices appeared alert to the consequences of their eventual ruling not only for Monsanto’s very lucrative soybean patents but also for modern agriculture generally and for areas as varied as vaccines, cell lines and software.

As often happens, it looks like everyone is out of step but me...

[onoway]

It seems sad and scary that they appear to have treated the whole thing as a sort of joke. It appears to have been far from a balanced and reasoned decision if it was not restricted to this case in any way, and it will have unhappy results for the world in the long run.

OTOH if it was established that the guy originally HAD signed a contract with Monsanto then he was an idiot to try to get away with this. What a great test case for Monsanto to establish infringement. I have (justifiably, they have been caught being involved with lots of different shenanigans,) such a deep suspicion of Monsanto it would not surprise me if they had an agreement with the guy to forego any fines if the verdict went their way; it might have been much more difficult if the fellow really had been innocent of intention.