Joe Wright
Activist Post

The legal battle between Monsanto and farmers around the world continues unabated. On one hand, farming groups of all sizes, as well as seed businesses, are increasingly suing Monsanto for widespread genetic manipulation; and also to counter Monsanto’s own vast patent infringement attacks against those unwitting enough to have their (even organic) crops cross-pollenated by Monsanto’s GM products.

However, Monsanto exerts an overwhelming amount of pressure for perceived patent infringements, constantly suing farmers for their contamination of the farmers’ own land. Aside from being a billion dollar industry with their biotechnology used in genetically engineered seeds and companion products like Roundup herbicide, they use patent infringement lawsuits to thickly line their coffers. And apparently they have the support of the legal system in doing so.

A huge verdict has come down on the side of Monsanto in the absurd amount of $1 billion to be paid by competitor DuPont. While it might seem like something to almost be happy about, since DuPont is yet another mega chemical corporation which has been implicated in damage to the environment and human health, this potentially sets a bad precedent to be cited in future legal verdicts, thus giving Monsanto even more legal standing and power. Perhaps most ominous of all, this legal victory was granted for a product that was never even on the market, taking on a new dimension in the area of patent infringement. (Source)

TechDirt makes the following particularly salient points about the implications of this verdict against DuPont’s never-released Optimum GAT soybean line:

Normally, companies can build on top of others’ products as patents are set to expire, so they’re ready to launch once the patent has expired. But, in this case, even trying to build new offerings in a lab for use later is apparently an insane billion dollar issue. Even worse, it means that any real competition, which will create more market-reasonable prices, gets significantly delayed as no one can prepare for when the patent expires. (Source)

Read more: Monsanto Award of $1 Billion