I was watching the movie The Future of Food, which describes the infamous Monsanto lawsuits against farmers whose crops have been contaminated by Monsanto's GMO crops. The Future of Food also goes into a variety of food production related topics. If you eat food, you really need to watch this movie!
I will not spoil the movie. Instead, I will point out just one of the topics that struck me: the fact that Monsanto has already (and has the ability to) patent crops and seeds that they did not develop!
According to the movie, an individual or corporation has the ability to patent the genes of any crop or seed that have not yet been patented regardless of the fact that such seeds probably occur naturally. Perhaps I am misinterpreting this straightforward quote from the movie; however, if this is true, it is a true outrage. Also, it is completely counter to 'novel' and 'non-obvious' requirement of patent law. See the quote below from the US Patent Office website:
In order for an invention to be patentable it must be new as defined in the patent law, which provides that an invention cannot be patented if: "(a) the invention was known or used by others in this country, or patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country, before the invention thereof by the applicant for patent," or "(b) the invention was patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country or in public use or on sale in this country more than one year prior to the application for patent in the United States . . ."Clearly, any non-GMO seed genes must have been around and in use for more than a year before a patent was filed! Can somebody please explain how to patent something as 'new' that has been around for centuries if not millennia?
I highly recommend watching this movie. It was released in 2004, so it may seem like some of the references are out of date. Unfortunately, they are not. The issues presented are still current today!
Thanks,
Sean Diamond
No comments:
Post a Comment