Supreme Court decision closes loophole in Monsanto’s business model
The Supreme Court’s unanimous opinion in Bowman v. Monsanto
holds that farmers who lawfully obtain Monsanto’s patented, genetically
modified soybeans do not have a right to plant those soybeans and grow a
new crop of soybeans without Monsanto’s permission. “The Court closed a
potential loophole in Monsanto’s long-standing business model, prevents
Monsanto’s customers from setting up ‘farm-factories’ for producing
soybeans that could be sold in competition with Monsanto’s soybeans, and
it enables Monsanto to continue to earn a reasonable profit on its
patented technology,” says Kevin Collins, JD, patent law expert and
professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis