> When a company is granted a utility patent on a type of seed, it doesn’t just own the seed. It also owns its traits (color, texture, ... > So, if a plant bre

> When a company is granted a utility patent on a type of seed, it doesn’t just own the seed. It also owns its traits (color, texture, ... > So, if a plant breeder like Morton develops his own variety of lettuce and the lettuce matches any of the traits of a patented variety – whether it be color, the curliness of the leaf or a trait that makes it conducive to a particular climate – the breeder is technically in violation of patent law and risks getting sued by the patent owner. > "They are essentially just doing obsessive-compulsive descriptions of plants and laying claims to those traits, so if anyone else has those traits, they are in violation"