Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Supreme Court To Decide If Monsanto GMO Patents Are Valid

Posted by timothy on from the he-said-kill-it-before-it-grows dept.

tomhath writes with this exerpt from a Reuters story: "The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear an Indiana farmer's appeal that challenges the scope of Monsanto Co.'s patent rights on its Roundup Ready seeds. Mr. Bowman bought and planted 'commodity seeds' from a grain elevator. Those soybean seeds were a mix and included some that contained Monsanto's technology. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case over the objections of the Obama administration, which had urged the justices to leave the lower court rulings in place."

4 of 308 comments (clear)

  1. If you thought the utility monopolies were bad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wait for the food monopolies... oh wait, they're already here.

  2. I still think this guy should countersue . . . by mmell · · Score: 5, Insightful

    After all, the manufacture, distribution and use of Monsanto's GM product is presumably regulated by some governmental agency? I tend to think that FDA is involved, at least? Monsanto's seed got onto that farmer's land without his knowledge or consent, and the potential damages he could suffer as a result of Monsanto's technology being inadvertently deployed on his land are demonstrably quite large. The ultimate fault is Monsanto's, for failing to adequately control their genetically modified produce's growth and proliferation.

    1. Re:I still think this guy should countersue . . . by mindwhip · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Isn't that like blaming the copyright holder for not controlling distribution?

      It's more like a record company breaking into your home and replacing half your CDs with their own, then demanding 100x the value of the CD from everyone that complained to the police about the break in.

      --
      [The Universe] has gone offline.
  3. Re:Why is the Obama administration objecting ? by Mathinker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    since there was an article recently showing that both the GMO strain and roundup itself cause cancer.

    The research methods used in that article have been criticised by a lot of people. Not all published scientific articles are correct.