Monsanto Seed Patent Case Gets Review by Supreme Court

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Friday to consider how patent rules apply to self-replicating technologies, accepting an appeal from a farmer seeking to circumvent Monsanto Co.’s planting restrictions on its genetically modified seeds.

The justices said they will review a federal appeals court decision that said Vernon Hugh Bowman infringed Monsanto’s patents when he planted soybeans he had bought from a grain elevator. Those beans were the product of seeds covered by Monsanto’s patents, and the St. Louis-based company says its rights extend to the second-generation beans.

The case centers on a technology that has helped make Monsanto the world’s largest seed company, with $13.5 billion in annual revenue, while provoking fights with opponents of genetically modified food and some farmers. Monsanto’s Roundup Ready seeds are engineered to be tolerant of herbicides. Farmers have embraced the technology because it lets them kill weeds while leaving crops unscathed.

Last year, 94 percent of U.S. soybeans were engineered to tolerate herbicides such as Roundup.

The legal issues stem from Monsanto’s efforts to ensure that farmers have to buy the genetically modified seeds every year, rather than planting part of the harvest from the previous season. Farmers who buy seeds from an authorized dealer must agree that they won’t use any harvested seeds for planting.

Bowman sought to get around that requirement from 1999 to 2007 by buying less expensive soybeans from a grain elevator. Because the elevator accepted harvests from farmers using Monsanto seeds, the second-generation beans proved to be herbicide-resistant. When Monsanto found out about the practice, the company sued Bowman.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which handles patent cases, sided with Monsanto. The panel rejected Bowman’s contention that Monsanto had “exhausted” its patent rights by the time he bought the seed. The appeals court said Bowman “created a newly infringing article” by growing a new generation of soybeans with the seed.

Monsanto said in a statement that the Federal Circuit decision “reaffirmed important intellectual property rights of significance to the entire agricultural biotechnology industry.”