Patent Infringement: Beware of the Giant Monsanto’s Operating, Non-exhausted GMO Patent

In the mid of controversial issues of patent infringement on Monsanto’s Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) and its potential environmental harm or contamination to organic seeds, the U.S. Supreme Court decided on a patent infringement case for Monsanto on May 13, 2013. The Court unanimously recognized Monsanto’s patent rights on its Roundup Ready soybeans resistant to a herbicide, holding that a farmer infringed Monsanto’s patent rights which have not been exhausted yet. The Court rejected farmer’s argument based on the doctrine of patent exhaustion, by refusing to recognize the patent exhaustion in this GMO case. The Court reasoned that there is a licensing agreement between Monsanto and farmers, which prohibits farmers from saving the seeds harvested from the originally purchased GMO seeds from Monsanto, and from replanting the saved GMO seeds. This paper introduces the Court’s patent infringement case against a farmer who saved Monsanto’s GMO soybeans, planted, and re-produced them for some years. It overviews the doctrine of “patent exhaustion,” by analyzing how the U.S. Supreme Court interpreted the doctrine in a GMO case.