U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Farmer's Monsanto Seed Appeal
- Common Dreams staff
Published on Friday, October 5, 2012 by Common Dreams
Published on Friday, October 5, 2012 by Common Dreams
The U.S. Supreme Court
on Friday agreed to hear the case of a 73-year-old Indiana farmer who appealed
a decision that he infringed patents held by Monsanto Co.
A federal appeals court found that soybean farmer Vernon Bowman
infringed on Monsanto patents when he planted second-generation soybeans that
were the product of seeds he had purchased from Monsanto.
The court upheld a
decision awarding Monsanto $84,456 in damages, Reutersreported.
Bowman argued that the
rights to the seeds had expired, Greg Stohr reported for
Bloomberg.
The company claims to
hold the rights to genetically modified seeds, and says farmers must buy them
every year rather than planting any of the previous year's harvest.
Monsanto is the
world's largest seed company, with $13.5 billion in annual revenue. Monsanto's
Roundup Ready seeds are engineered to resist herbicides such as Roundup, according to
Bloomberg.
Reuters reported that
the case would likely be heard in January or February of 2013.
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