GM Watch
  • Main Menu
    • Home
    • News
      • Newsletter subscription
      • Daily Digest
      • News Reviews
      • News Languages
    • Articles
      • GM Myth Makers
      • GM Reports
      • GM Quotes
      • GM Myths
      • Non-GM successes
      • GM Firms
        • Monsanto: a history
        • Monsanto: resources
        • Bayer: a history
        • Bayer: resources
    • Videos
      • Latest Videos
      • Must see videos
      • Cornell videos
      • Agriculture videos
      • Labeling videos
      • Animals videos
      • Corporations videos
      • Corporate takeover videos
      • Contamination videos
      • Latin America videos
      • India videos
      • Asia videos
      • Food safety videos
      • Songs videos
      • Protests videos
      • Biofuel myths videos
      • Index of GM crops and foods
      • Index of speakers
      • Health Effects
    • Contact
    • About
    • Donations
    • How donations will help us
News and comment on genetically modified foods and their associated pesticides    
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Newsletter subscription
    • News Reviews
    • News Languages
      • Notícias em Português
      • Nieuws in het Nederlands
      • Nachrichten in Deutsch
    • Archive
      • 2021 articles
      • 2020 articles
      • 2019 articles
      • 2018 articles
      • 2017 articles
      • 2016 articles
      • 2015 articles
      • 2014 articles
      • 2013 articles
      • 2012 articles
      • 2011 articles
      • 2010 articles
      • 2009 articles
      • 2008 articles
      • 2007 articles
      • 2006 articles
      • 2005 articles
      • 2004 articles
      • 2003 articles
      • 2002 articles
      • 2001 articles
      • 2000 articles
  • Articles
    • GM Myth Makers
    • GM Reports
    • How donations will help us
    • GM Quotes
    • GM Myths
    • Non-GM successes
    • GM Firms
      • Monsanto: a history
      • Monsanto: resources
      • Bayer: a history
      • Bayer: resources
  • Videos
    • Index of speakers
    • Glyphosate Videos
    • Latest Videos
    • Must see videos
    • Health Effects
    • Cornell videos
    • Agriculture videos
    • Labeling videos
    • Animals videos
    • Corporations videos
    • Corporate takeover videos
    • Contamination videos
    • Latin America videos
    • India videos
    • Asia videos
    • Food safety videos
    • Songs videos
    • Protests videos
    • Biofuel myths videos
    • Index of GM crops and foods
  • Contact
  • About
  • Donations
SUBSCRIBE TO REVIEWS

GMWatch Facebook cornfield banner

SCIENCE SUPPORTS REGULATION OF GENE EDITING

Plant tissue cultures

GENE EDITING: UNEXPECTED OUTCOMES AND RISKS

Damaged DNA on fire

GENE-EDITED CROPS & FOODS

Help stop the new threat

GM Fed pig

News Menu

  • Latest News
  • News Reviews
  • Archive
  • Languages

Please support GMWatch

Donations

You can donate via Paypal or credit/debit card.

Some of you have opted to give a regular donation. This is greatly appreciated as it helps place us on a more stable financial basis. Thank you for your support!

2012 articles

Monsanto ordered to suspend seed royalties

  • Print
  • Email
Details
Published: 09 October 2012
Created: 09 October 2012
Last Updated: 22 October 2012
Twitter

1.Brazil State Court Orders Monsanto Co To Suspend Seed Royalties
2.Monsanto Brings Its GMO War Path To The Supreme Court
–-
–-
1.Brazil State Court Orders Monsanto Co To Suspend Seed Royalties
Reuters (Key Developments), 8 Oct 2012 
http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/MON/key-developments/article/2619561

Reuters reported that: A court in Brazil's top soy growing state said it ordered Monsanto Co to stop charging royalties on its Roundup Ready soybean and Bollgard cotton seeds on Monday. The court, in the agricultural state of Mato Grosso, sided with the state's farming and ranching federation, finding that Monsanto's patent on the seeds had expired in 2010 and had not been renewed in Brazil. Monsanto, which has defended its right to apply royalties to patented seeds in Brazil in federal court, said on Monday it had not been officially notified of the decision but that it was complying with Brazil's intellectual property laws.
–-
–-
2.Monsanto Brings Its GMO War Path To The Supreme Court
Melissa Cronin 
NYULOcal, October 9 2012
http://nyulocal.com/city/2012/10/09/monsanto-brings-its-gmo-war-path-to-the-supreme-court/
[go to source for embedded links in article]

The battle against Monsanto Company is gaining new ground, as the [U.S.] Supreme Court announced Friday that it would take a suit against the agro-giant this winter. The court will review an appeal brought by Indiana farmer Vernon Bowman, who Monsanto claims infringed on its patent rights by reusing its herbicide-tolerant seeds. The landmark case could have enormous repercussions for GMO patent laws and big agribusiness and possibly deal a huge blow to the chemical behemoth.

Bowman, a 74-year-old soybean farmer who bought cheap soybeans from a grain elevator from 1999 to 2007, challenged Monsanto’s licensing agreements on their genetically modified Roundup Ready seeds, which are resistant to the company’s Roundup herbicide. Farmers are legally contracted to buy a new crop of seeds every yeara practice that keeps Monsanto in business.

The case is moving up from the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals, which ruled against Bowman over a year ago. Monsanto won against the 74-year-old soybean farmer, who claimed as defense that the company had “exhausted” its patent rights when he bought the seed. Bowman was fined $84,456 in damages to Monsanto. While there are actually no restrictions on re-selling seeds to grain elevators as a commodity, it is forbidden to “create newly infringing genetic material, seeds and plants,” in the words of the Court of Appeals.

Bowman, unlike many of the small organic farmers resisting Monsanto’s GMO seed use, was actually using the Roundup technology. He bought second-generation grain elevator seeds for his second planting of the season. He then applied glyphosate, the potent chemical in Roundup, to his crops to see which seeds were still resistant to the herbicide. Then he saved these seeds for the next year, essentially circumventing Monsanto’s patent restrictions. Bowman claimed that Monsanto does not have rights over the seeds after they have been sold, and that he bought the Roundup Ready soybeans among an undifferentiated mix of other seeds.

Mark Walters, a lawyer for Bowman, told Reuters that the court’s decision conflicts with “over a century of Supreme Court law on patent exhaustion.”

Monsanto has carried out one of the most aggressive patent assertion campaigns in history, said Dan Ravicher, Executive Director of the Public Patent Foundation, in a press release. If the Supreme Court overturns the ruling, farmers will be able to buy second-generation seeds like these for a fraction of the price they pay for new seeds each year. And in a country where being a large-scale farmer is only getting more difficult and less lucrative, this could be a huge boon.

The seed and pesticide company, which made $13.5 billion last year in annual revenue, has a long history of dubious practices, which we’ve covered in depth. From Agent Orange to DDT to carcinogenic PCBs, Monsanto has been heralded as the evilest of evil corporations. With this upcoming case, the Supreme Court will have to weigh in on a farmer’s right to”¦well, plant.

  • Prev
  • Next

Menu

Home

News

News Archive

News Reviews

Videos

Articles

GM Myth Makers

GM Reports

GM Myths

GM Quotes

How Donations Will Help Us

Contacts

Contact Us

About

Facebook

Twitter

RSS

Content 1999 - 2021 GMWatch.
Web Development By SCS Web Design