At the oral argument in Bowman v. Monsanto, Chief Justice Roberts cut off Bowman’s attorney seconds into his delivery, questioning his thesis, which undermined the purposes of patent law. “Why in the world would anybody spend any money to try to improve the seed if as soon as they sold the first one anybody could grow more and have as many of those seeds as they want?” Indeed, why would they? Why spend many millions to develop and commercialize a genetically engineered, herbicide-resistant plant product if the patent laws would not protect that investment?
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Planting Seeds of Injustice
Posted by: Raymond Van Dyke February 26, 2013 09:39 AMAt the oral argument in Bowman v. Monsanto, Chief Justice Roberts cut off Bowman’s attorney seconds into his delivery, questioning his thesis, which undermined the purposes of patent law. “Why in the world would anybody spend any money to try to improve the seed if as soon as they sold the first one anybody could grow more and have as many of those seeds as they want?” Indeed, why would they? Why spend many millions to develop and commercialize a genetically engineered, herbicide-resistant plant product if the patent laws would not protect that investment?