4 ms·

I'm not a patent lawyer, so maybe I'm wrong and someone can correct me, but all this "how can you patent a seed" whining is bullshit. The Monsanto patents are

I'm not a patent lawyer, so maybe I'm wrong and someone can correct me, but all this "how can you patent a seed" whining is bullshit. The Monsanto patents are for the method of using a particular herbicide in combination with the modified plant seeds. If you innocently get some Monsanto genes into your organic soybean seeds, then you would almost certainly not be infringing the patent any more than I could be infringing DVD patents by using a stack of DVDs to prop up a wobbly table. Has Monsanto ever sued anyone who was not trying to use the combination of the GMO crops and the herbicide they are tolerant to? I have never heard of such a situation. I've yet to meet anyone who claims to think it's bad for Monsanto to have a legal monopoly (patent) on this process who doesn't also think that no one should be using it, because it's either screwing with nature to use gene splicing to feed the world, or maybe just because not having our crops ruined by pests makes us soft and unworthy or some crap. Read Mark Lynas's post explaining "I am also sorry that I helped to start the anti-GM movement back in the mid 1990s, and that I thereby assisted in demonising an important technological option which can be used to benefit the environment." http://www.marklynas.org/2013/01/lecture-to-oxford-farming-conference-3-january-2013/ http://www.marklynas.org/2013/01/lecture-to-oxford-farming-c...

bad_user 14y ago
@tptacek's opinion is much better without resorting to phrases such as "whining is bullshit". > Has Monsanto ever sued anyone... As a car driver in a crowded city I bend the rules all the time. Just this week alone there were several rules I broke that could have lead to my license being suspended, but because the city is so crowded, the probability of being caught for breaking rules (such as going around a tram pedestrian refuge, or forcing the yellow light) is close to zero, unless you end up in an accident. There is a difference however in what is legal to do and what you can get away with. Our current legislation systems tends to make criminals out of all of us. The example I just gave is a bad one too, because I know exactly what rules I'm breaking and I know exactly the outcome if I get caught, whereas with infringing patents you never know exactly what patents you infringe, or the outcome of that. There's also the issue of selective enforcement. The law should be the same for everybody, otherwise if everybody is a criminal by default, the law gets used to suppress people that are undesirable. It doesn't really matter if Monsanto never sued anyone for using their patented crops without the usage of the Roundup herbicide. The bigger issue is that if you receive some seeds from a friend, planting them in your garden will leave you on the wrong side of the law and you might not even know it.
kens 14y ago
"The Monsanto patents are for the method of using a particular herbicide in combination with the modified plant seeds." - I don't think that's true. I looked at some of the Monsanto patents [1] and they are for specific herbicide-resistance gene sequences, just the sequences alone. Do you know of a patent on using the herbicide with the seeds, or is this an urban legend? [1] http://www.monsanto.com/products/Pages/product-patents.aspx http://www.monsanto.com/products/Pages/product-patents.aspx specifically 5717084, 5728925, 5717084

bad_user 14y ago

@tptacek's opinion is much better without resorting to phrases such as "whining is bullshit". > Has Monsanto ever sued anyone... As a car driver in a crowded city I bend the rules all the time. Just this week alone there were several rules I broke that could have lead to my license being suspended, but because the city is so crowded, the probability of being caught for breaking rules (such as going around a tram pedestrian refuge, or forcing the yellow light) is close to zero, unless you end up in an accident. There is a difference however in what is legal to do and what you can get away with. Our current legislation systems tends to make criminals out of all of us. The example I just gave is a bad one too, because I know exactly what rules I'm breaking and I know exactly the outcome if I get caught, whereas with infringing patents you never know exactly what patents you infringe, or the outcome of that. There's also the issue of selective enforcement. The law should be the same for everybody, otherwise if everybody is a criminal by default, the law gets used to suppress people that are undesirable. It doesn't really matter if Monsanto never sued anyone for using their patented crops without the usage of the Roundup herbicide. The bigger issue is that if you receive some seeds from a friend, planting them in your garden will leave you on the wrong side of the law and you might not even know it.

kens 14y ago

"The Monsanto patents are for the method of using a particular herbicide in combination with the modified plant seeds." - I don't think that's true. I looked at some of the Monsanto patents [1] and they are for specific herbicide-resistance gene sequences, just the sequences alone. Do you know of a patent on using the herbicide with the seeds, or is this an urban legend? [1] http://www.monsanto.com/products/Pages/product-patents.aspx http://www.monsanto.com/products/Pages/product-patents.aspx specifically 5717084, 5728925, 5717084