Tag: Patent

  • Farmers Appealing “Pre-Emptive” Monsanto Lawsuit to Supreme Court

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    Daniela
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    The Wisconsin Agconnection blog announces that the group of farmers who challenged Monsanto’s patents on genetically-modified seeds is appealing their case to the U.S. Supreme Court after a lower court ruled against them in June. The Maine-based Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association has been joined in their case by a group of 73 organic…

  • Another Victory for Seed Freedom

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    Daniela
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    Dr. Vandana Shiva, a world-renowned advocate for seed freedom and opponent of GMO’s, explains why the Indian Court’s rejection of Monsanto’s climate resilient plant patent is so important to seed freedom: Monsanto tried to create an irrelevant and false opposition of natural production of plants versus production based on human intervention. This is false because…

  • Trace Contamination by Patented Seeds Insufficient to Establish Standing to Challenge Patents

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    Daniela
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    Flying under the AMP v. Myriad radar was the Federal Circuit’s decision in Organic Seed Growers v. Monsanto. Let’s first recall the story of Bowman v. Monsanto. A small farmer purchased a batch of mixed seeds from an authorized vendor, expecting the batch to contain Monsanto’s patented Roundup Ready® seeds. The farmer then planted the seeds, selected for those with the…

  • Should Human Genes Be Patentable?

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    Daniela
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    Reposted from Andrew Sullivan’s blog “The Dish.” Florence Williams asks why a company should be allowed to patent the genes  that prompted Jolie’s double mastectomy: Although they reside in our bodies, the BRCA genes are effectively owned by a bio-tech giant, Myriad Genetics, which patented the genes in the mid-1990s. Should a single corporation control access to DNA…