July 24, 2007
Source: The Public Patent Foundation
The Public Patent
Foundation (PUBPAT) announced today that the
United States Patent
and Trademark Office has rejected four key
Monsanto
patents related to genetically modified crops that
PUBPAT challenged last year because the agricultural
giant is using them to harass, intimidate, sue - and
in some cases literally bankrupt - American
farmers. In its Office Actions rejecting each of
the patents, the USPTO held that evidence submitted
by PUBPAT, in addition to other prior art located by
the Patent Office's Examiners, showed that Monsanto
was not entitled to any of the patents.
Monsanto has filed dozens of patent infringement
lawsuits asserting the four challenged patents
against American farmers, many of whom are unable to
hire adequate representation to defend themselves in
court. The crime these farmers are accused of is
nothing more than saving seed from one year's crop
to replant the following year, something farmers
have done since the beginning of time.
One
study of the matter found that, "Monsanto has
used heavy-handed investigations and ruthless
prosecutions that have fundamentally changed the way
many American farmers farm. The result has been
nothing less than an assault on the foundations of
farming practices and traditions that have endured
for centuries in this country and millennia around
the world, including one of the oldest, the right to
save and replant crop seed." The lawsuits filed by
Monsanto against American farmers include Monsanto
Company v. Mitchell Scruggs, et al, 459 F.3d 1328
(Fed. Cir. 2006), Monsanto Company v. Kem Ralph
individually, et al, 382 F.3d 1374 (Fed. Cir. 2004)
and Monsanto Company v. Homan McFarling, 363 F.3d
1336 (Fed. Cir. 2004).
Although Monsanto has the opportunity to respond to
the Patent Office's rejections of the patents (U.S.
Patents Nos. 5,164,316, 5,196,525, 5,322,938 and
5,352,605), third party requests for re-examination,
like the ones filed by PUBPAT against the four
Monsanto patents, are successful in having the
reviewed patents either changed or completely
revoked more than two-thirds of the time.
"We are extremely pleased that the Patent Office has
agreed with us that Monsanto does not deserve these
patents that it has used to unfairly bully American
farmers," said Dan Ravicher, PUBPAT's Executive
Director. "Hopefully, this is the beginning of the
end of the harm being caused to the public by
Monsanto's aggressive assertion of these patents,
which threatens family farms and a diverse American
food supply."
More information, including copies of the Office
Actions issued by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office
rejecting the four Monsanto patents, can be found at
PUBPAT > Monsanto Anti-Farmers Patents.