U.S. Court of Appeals rules against Indiana soybean farmer in Monsanto suit
|
September 24, 2011
Washington, D.C.: The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia have ruled in favor of Monsanto in the lawsuit against an Indiana soybean farmer.[1] The Missouri-based company sued Indiana farmer Vernon Bowman in 2007 for allegedly planting and saving soybean seeds with the company's genetically altered "Roundup Ready" technology.[2]
Bowman says that he bought the Monsanto product in a mixture of commodity seeds; commodity seeds are a combination of seeds, sold together, which are undifferentiated from one another.[2] Monsanto alleges that Bowman identified the "Roundup Ready" technology crops in the commodity mixture by applying glyphosate to them, and subsequently saved the seeds from those crops to use the following year. Under Monsanto's licensing agreements commercial use of their seeds are only allowed for one crop season, thus saving and planting Monsanto seeds year after year is forbidden. It was previously untested as to whether this licensing agreement applied to Monsanto seeds obtained through commodity seed purchases, however this court decision found that the licensing agreement does indeed extend to commodity obtained seeds.[1]
Bowman has been ordered to pay over $84,000 in damages to Monsanto, and he is currently considering another appeal.[1]
Footnotes
| |||||
