Organic Farmers' Preemptive Lawsuit Against Monsanto Patents Tossed Out For Being A Bit Too Preemptive
from the can't-declare-just-yet dept
Monsanto has quite a track record of going after farmers for making use of its "patented" seeds, even in a case that involve seeds that blew onto a farm from a neighboring farm. So, it wasn't entirely surprising to see a group of organic farmers preemptively sue Monsanto last year, asking for a declaratory judgment that they did not infringe. However, the judge in the case has now dismissed the case, noting that for a declaratory judgment, there has to be a real conflict, and Monsanto keeps insisting that it won't sue these farmers. From a legal standpoint, this argument makes sense (and the declaratory judgment standard can be pretty high in some cases -- especially if no direct threat has been issued). But, it still seems unfortunate. Given Monsanto's past actions in other cases, even if it says it won't sue now, plenty of farmers are reasonably scared about what will happen down the road. But, for now, they just have to wait and hope that Monsanto seeds don't show up on their farms...Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: declaratory judgment, organic farmers, patents, seeds
Companies: monsanto
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Stupid plebians
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Let me fix your quote...
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Re: Stupid plebians
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Calling Ms. Morissette
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Re: Calling Ms. Morissette
> organisms ironic?
Perhaps, but Monsanto isn't doing that. It's claiming patent.
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Re: Re: Calling Ms. Morissette
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Seeds
And since the claims are being allowed to go forward, I'm not sure why the farmers don't countersue Monsanto for trespass and/or negligently contaminating their farms with their unwanted genetically modified freak-seeds.
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Re: Seeds
Check out "The Future of Food". It makes it all very clear.
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Re: Re: Seeds
Based on what legal theory? Because unless the judge just wants to openly admit that "big companies always win", there's no actual statutory or common law principle that would allow Monstanto to prevail.
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This was actually a success ... of sorts
The Court had little choice on how to rule ... ripeness and all.
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Re: This was actually a success ... of sorts
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Re:
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Why isn't Monsanto not Liable for Contaminating Crops
Or are the organic farmers stuck in a legal catch-22?
The whole things seems backwards to me.
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Re: Why isn't Monsanto not Liable for Contaminating Crops
How can the FBI expect other countries to enforce U.S. laws if they aren't willing to reciprocate?
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Re: Why isn't Monsanto not Liable for Contaminating Crops
Monsanto has money
Organic farmers do not
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They'll sue they always do
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Re:
People want the option not to have these plants. And poor farmers particularly don't want to be dependent on a large corporation providing them with expensive products. So they are fighting a system where unwanted crops contaminate their own crops and then they are sued for having them.
Also, another big issue has been labeling. You want to grow GMOs? Fine, but don't balk if countries ask you to label the foods that have them. In fact, if GMOs are so great, presumably you'd be proud to sell labeled GMO foodstuffs.
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That's difficult, considering the amount of fearmongering and misinformation spread by the opponents of GMO food.
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As opposed to the fearmongering and misinformation spread by producers of GMO food?
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Look at the case of "big pharma" for example. People have a go at them for their greed and shameless profiteering, and rightly so. But then some turn around and say that if "big pharma" are willing to do this then obviously all their drugs are going to just make people sick and keep them sick rather than healing them because all they care about is money and not about people. And so you get dangerous idiots like the antivax movement, faith healers, and homeopaths cashing in on people's ill-informed mistrust of the evil scary corporations. I don't really see the fear of GMO food as being any different.
I can dislike a company's practices without being paranoid of the science.
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Attacks paid for by big business are 'driving science into a dark era' | Science | The Observer
What complicates things in terms of health is that what might be conventional wisdom at one point may be disproved later on. For example, it was considered "modern" for women to bottle feed. Now we know that breastfeeding is better, and yet for years we had to battle formula companies not to pressure women, particularly poor women, to favor formula over breast milk.
Back in the 1950s, tonsillitis was sometimes treated with radiation. Now we know that it can result decades later in thyroid cancer.
Once I became pregnant, I became much more aware of what I was exposed to and what my kids were exposed to. Are concerns about GMOs too extreme? I don't know. But I want the option not to have GMO foods. And I worry that we'll have a rebound effect giving us superbugs and superweeds and the system will end up being more out of whack than it was before.
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Those that seek seed royalties, and the legal monopoly over ALL of food in the world, aren't your friends. Science, or no science.
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Yes, I feel the same way. I don't want Big Ag to own the world's food supply.
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> that they are just one more way for massive,
> bureaucratic, monstrosities called corporations
> to seek rent money from things even the poor
> depend on, namely food.
Next step: The Hunger Games!
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Re: Re: Re:
So, even though GMOs are saving mankind, they need to be kept secret because of PR?
I actually didn't pay too much attention to them until recently. I've always tried to avoid pesticides and herbicides, so in general I prefer organic foods. While GMOs might reduce the needs of herbicides and pesticides on crops, if they result in harder-to-kill weeds and bugs, we're back to where we were.
What got me worried about GMOs is that they can spread to non-GMO crops and then the farmers get sued for having them. That sounds like a power play to me.
People do have the right to avoid GMOs and countries do have the right to prevent them from being grown within their borders. If labeling helps consumers identify what they want to buy, it sounds like a good thing to me.
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Easy For Monsanto
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Re: Easy For Monsanto
> Test the crop.
How do they get that into evidence without admitting to illegal trespass?
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Re: Re: Easy For Monsanto
1. Stand 'upwind' with bag of GMO seed.
2. Toss seed in air
3. Let wind do what wind does
4. Accuse farmer of 'stealing GMO seed' point out that a sample from spot X would be a good test site.
5. Let farmer provide 'sample' from suggested site.
6. Sue farmer and Profit....
If you really can't figure out how to screw the consumer, then congratulations, you aren't an evil corporate shill (this would have been a 'no brainer' for them - not referring to their bosses, just the concept of how to legally 'screw' the customer....)
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Re: Re: Re: Easy For Monsanto
> from spot X would be a good test site.
Even if the test results are positive, how does that prove theft on the part of the farmer? All it proves is that the seed somehow got on the farmer's land and given that seeds are intentionally designed to germinate on their own, the mere presence of patented seed on the land proves nothing regarding theft. To prove theft, you'd have to also prove intent to steal on the part of the farmer.
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http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/02/15/1956248/300k-organic-farmers-to-sue-monsanto-fo r-seed-patent-claims
Monsanto really does deserve imprisonment.
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This is the same lawsuit.
http://bit.ly/xdaqfD
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Wrongful contamination
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if a seed sprouts, grows, and replicates
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Re: if a seed sprouts, grows, and replicates
Isn't the law wonderful?
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Article from a couple of weeks ago
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Here's the latest
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And more
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consider all angles
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