U.S. Supreme Court: Farmers Can't Steal Monsanto's Patented Seeds

The United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of Creve Coeur-based Monsanto, ruling an Indiana farmer improperly mixed seeds from the firm with others in a way that tampered with Monsanto's patent.

The court heard arguments in the case back in February.

USA Today reports:

Monsanto's soybeans represent the cream of the crop because they are resistant to the weed killer Roundup. Farmers must pay Monsanto's price to plant the beans themselves.

That's not what Indiana farmer Vernon Hugh Bowman did. After one year of going through Monsanto, he bought his second crop from a grain elevator. Then he used his own soybeans that resisted Roundup in future years — in essence, the court said, making copies of a patented invention.

Two lower federal courts weren't impressed, ruling in favor of Monsanto. And on Monday, the nation's highest court ruled likewise.

In the ruling, Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the majority:

Under the doctrine of patent exhaustion, the authorized sale of a patented article gives the purchaser, or any subsequent owner, a right to use or resell that article. Such a sale, however, does not allow the purchaser to make new copies of the patented invention. The question in this case is whether a farmer who buys patented seeds may reproduce them through planting and harvesting without the patent holder’s permission. We hold that he may not. 

The Wall Street Journal reported that the decision had implications for the company's entire business model

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