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| Hi Tom, ask away, I'll give you personal first hand details, into a unwarranted patent infringement lawsuit, the kind of testimony that would stand up in any court in the land. BTW. most of the speculation and conjecture up above, is nonsense.
You are incorrect, our elected officials have not granted or permitted genetic theft, our court has. You have no doubt heard of JEM vs. Pioneer, this was a case actually involving non GMO but patented seed corn. Now the debate in this case was over the use of utility patents to supercede PVPA rights, it went all the way to the supreme court and in a 5 to 4 ruling former Monsanto attorney, chief justice Clarance Thomas, wrote the majority op ion which basically stated companies could use utility patents on seed to in essence, trump the PVPA. As you may already know the PVPA is the only law of this nation enacted by congress specifically dealing with seed. The PVPA specifically grants farmers the right to save there own seed. Also a very important point about the PVPA it grants researchers the right to use any seed in there breeding program to "further the art". Utility patents take away this right as they convey ownership of genetic heritage. Or as I see it theft.
I do not know what your experience is in politics but I'll share mine. Firstly I am a member of a group that has a interest in making small but important to us changes to the Farm Bill. This group is well healed and we have a significant Pac. When I lobby on behalf of this group I am granted full access to our legislators. Why, well because we usually have a $500 check with us. Now when I try to speak to legislators about my concerns with genetic theft I rarely get pass the staffer, there is no money to be made on this issue so we get ignored. As a matter of fact there is significant money to be lost as those interested perpetuating genetic theft, are very large campaign contributors.
To make matters worse the major commodity organizations have also succumbed to the influences of corporate money. The leaders of these organization are sent thru leadership training, wined and dined, taken on interesting trips and basically indoctrinated into thinking the way there benefactors need them to think and lobby. To be honest, Tom, I suspect you may be one of these people. The end result is they no longer represent farmers, they represent the controlling corporate interest.
I have been successful at the state level in getting legislation passed to protect farmers against Unwarranted patent infringement lawsuits. However God help you if you do not live in my state, cause Farm Bureau and ASA sure won't. BTW. that legislation I mentioned took two years to acheive and was the most heavly lobbied against bill (most money spent fighting against) at our statehouse one of those years. | |
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Monsanto Police
