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The problem here is that the patentability covers even extraction methods. You find a gene in a plant, you come up with a way to extract it and now you "own" t

The problem here is that the patentability covers even extraction methods. You find a gene in a plant, you come up with a way to extract it and now you "own" that gene. Even though you didn't discover it nor make it or anything. If the patents ONLY covered tailor made genetics I might find it a bit less onerous but the patentability is VERY broad. Also they didn't tailor-make the organism. They took a "regular" soybean and added some resistance to it. Had they invented a monsanto bean from scratch that had the resistance then sure. Furthermore there are people who are infringing on Monsantos patents by virtue of Monsanto soybeans freely and openly spreading their genetic material through the air. Imagine if the reprap people had designed their printer to be 3d printed (which they did) and then patented it and tried to sue people for using their reprap to 3d print the parts for another reprap. Pretty shitty huh? Now imagine that the reprap came pre-configured to print reprap parts and as soon as you plugged it in it started making them. Along with a note that said "look this printer is going to print parts and there's nothing that can be done about it. But if you want to use those parts, you have to send us a check for $500" Why does something that's utterly ridiculous in one domain seem perfectly acceptable in another?

pdabbadabba 14y ago
FYI, this opinion explicitly does not cover a situation where a farmer plants a patented seed accidentally.
vivin 14y ago
> The problem here is that the patentability covers even extraction methods. You find a gene in a plant, you come up with a way to extract it and now you "own" that gene. Even though you didn't discover it nor make it or anything. If the patents ONLY covered tailor made genetics I might find it a bit less onerous but the patentability is VERY broad. I was talking about the latter (owning a modified gene), but I completely agree that it is ridiculous to "own" a gene just because you were able to identify and extract it. I recall many years ago there was a row when a bunch of biotech firms were trying to patent the genome for Basmati rice and Turmeric. The Indian government was not happy because there were native plants and it would be ridiculous to pay licensing fees to some biotech firms in the US to grow plants that were native to the country.
dnautics 14y ago
>You find a gene in a plant, you come up with a way to extract it and now you "own" that gene. That depends on what sort of a patent you attempt to cover it under. If you cover it under a molecule patent, (like what myriad is doing) then that's legit, but your patent only covers the PCR product. It's pretty trivial to break such a patent.

pdabbadabba 14y ago

FYI, this opinion explicitly does not cover a situation where a farmer plants a patented seed accidentally.

vivin 14y ago

> The problem here is that the patentability covers even extraction methods. You find a gene in a plant, you come up with a way to extract it and now you "own" that gene. Even though you didn't discover it nor make it or anything. If the patents ONLY covered tailor made genetics I might find it a bit less onerous but the patentability is VERY broad. I was talking about the latter (owning a modified gene), but I completely agree that it is ridiculous to "own" a gene just because you were able to identify and extract it. I recall many years ago there was a row when a bunch of biotech firms were trying to patent the genome for Basmati rice and Turmeric. The Indian government was not happy because there were native plants and it would be ridiculous to pay licensing fees to some biotech firms in the US to grow plants that were native to the country.

dnautics 14y ago

>You find a gene in a plant, you come up with a way to extract it and now you "own" that gene. That depends on what sort of a patent you attempt to cover it under. If you cover it under a molecule patent, (like what myriad is doing) then that's legit, but your patent only covers the PCR product. It's pretty trivial to break such a patent.