Monsanto Plant Patent Case Winds On

srw writes "A follow-up to a slashdot story from two years ago: The Supreme Court of Canada is willing to hear the case of Percy Schmeiser -- a Saskatchewan farmer accused of violating Monsanto's IP by growing their patented canola. This article contains more background."

Comments

Another, perhaps even more worrysome case..

[villoks]

Hi,

This is not the only case going on right now - check this one out:

Farmer sent to prison over cotton seed

I'm personally not against GM-plants because they can help reducing the enviromental load, but this kind stories are very scary. A typical farmer has similar chances as a snowball in hell in to win a case against a Megacorp like Monsanto...

V.

On Monsanto:

[drinkypoo]

Copied from e2, (idea) by vectormane, without permission. I hope he doesn't mind. I didn't want to link to e2 because it can't handle the load.

Among the multitude of products and technologies invented and/or sold by Monsanto, or a company that later became a part of Monsanto:

• "Control of Plant Gene Expression"

  The 'terminator seed' was jointly developed by the USDA and the Delta and Pine Land Company in 1998. It is a process in which a plant is genetically engineered to produce sterile seeds. Delta and Pine announced this technology in March of 1998. Monsanto bought them out in May.

• Polychlorinated Biphenyls (Aroclor, Pyroclor)

  Most of the PCBs in the United States were manufactured by Monsanto until they were banned in 1976. PCBs are nonflammable and do not conduct electricity. They are linked to cancer, birth defects, and other negative health effects.

• rBGH Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone

  A genetically engineered hormone that makes dairy cows produce more milk. It also shortens the cows' lives, can lead to udder infection (which must be treated with antibiotics). BGH-treated cows' milk contains elevated levels of the hormone IGF-1, which is believed to be linked to increased cancer risk in humans. rBGH is banned in Canada.

• Agent Orange 2,4,5-T

  The herbicide used in Vietnam to destroy the foliage cover that the Viet Cong hid under. Often times Agent Orange was contaminated with 2,3,7,8-TCDD Dioxin). The TCDD is linked to cancers and birth defects. It is banned in the United States.

In other words, Monsanto is criminal, arguably evil, certainly negligent, and generally a bunch of right bastards. GM foods FUD notwithstanding, these guys are bad people.

Re:Why isn't this a slam dunk case?

[El Christador]

And if this a case about accidental/natural seed contamination, why isn't every farmer on the planet trying to bring down Monsanto?

It's not a case about accidental/natural seed contamination. That question has already been settled conclusively: natural/accidental seed contamination does not constitute patent infringement. End of that story. (this is covered in the http://decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca/fct/2002/2002fca309. htmlFederal Court of Appeal's ruling.) However, Percy Schmeiser is not arguing that the plants in question growing in his fields (in 1998) were an instance of accidental contamination. He is arguing that the came into his hands via accidental contamination (in 1997), but he does not dispute that once he discovered he had it growing on his property and had identified it as glyphosate resistant, seeds were harvested from it and used to plant his next year's crop. Note that the claim against him is "patent infringement" i.e. use of a patented invention without the patent-holder's permission. It is not "illicitly getting his hands on Monsanto's seed". There is no law against getting your hands on genetically modified canola seed. There is, however, a law against planting it and cultivating it unless you hold a patent to do so. Which is why he's lost the first two rounds of the case.

The following paragraphs from the first ruling may be illuminating as to what Percy Schmeiser's position actually is:

[38] As we have noted Mr. Schmeiser testified that in 1997 he planted his canola crop with seed saved from 1996 which he believed came mainly from field number 1. Roundup-resistant canola was first noticed in his crop in 1997, when Mr. Schmeiser and his hired hand, Carlysle Moritz, hand-sprayed Roundup around the power poles and in ditches along the road bordering fields 1, 2, 3 and 4. These fields are adjacent to one another and are located along the east side of the main paved grid road that leads south to Bruno from these fields. This spraying was part of the regular farming practices of the defendants, to kill weeds and volunteer plants around power poles and in ditches. Several days after the spraying, Mr. Schmeiser noticed that a large portion of the plants earlier sprayed by hand had survived the spraying with the Roundup herbicide.

[39] In an attempt to determine why the plants had survived the herbicide spraying, Mr. Schmeiser conducted a test in field 2. Using his sprayer, he sprayed, with Roundup herbicide, a section of that field in a strip along the road. He made two passes with his sprayer set to spray 40 feet, the first weaving between and around the power poles, and the second beyond but adjacent to the first pass in the field, and parallel to the power poles. This was said by him to be some three to four acres in all, or "a good three acres". After some days, approximately 60% of the plants earlier sprayed had persisted and continued to grow. Mr. Schmeiser testified that these plants grew in clumps which were thickest near the road and began to thin as one moved farther into the field.

[40] Despite this rsult Mr. Schmeiser continued to work field 2, and, at harvest, Carlysle Moritz, on instruction from Mr. Schmeiser, swathed and combined field 2. He included swaths from the surviving canola seed along the roadside in the first load of seed in the combine which he emptied into an old Ford truck located in the field. That truck was covered with a tarp and later it was towed to one of Mr. Schmeiser's outbuildings at Bruno. In the spring of 1998 the seed from the old Ford truck was taken by Mr. Schmeiser in another truck to the Humboldt Flour Mill ("HFM") for treatment. After that, Mr. Schmeiser's testimony is that the treated seed was mixed with some bin-run seed and fertilizer and then used for planting his 1998 canola crop.