washingtonpost.com: Monsanto Beats Farmer in Patent Fight

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A45322-2004May21?language=printer

Capping a seven-year, globally watched legal battle between biotechnology giant Monsanto Co. and a scrappy 73-year-old Saskatchewan farmer, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled yesterday that Percy Schmeiser violated Monsanto's patent by growing the company's high-tech canola and saving the valuable seeds produced by those plants.

This is just spooky. Seems the farmer's field picked up pollen from neighbors who had planted patented Monsanto canola. Then he had the audacity to save the seed from his crop for next year's crop, something that the farmers who buy Monsanto's seed are prohibited from doing. So Monsanto sued him for patent infringement.

I'm not sure what's scarier about this:

• That a seed provider can try to control how the crop is used
• That the farmers who buy the seed go along with the restrictions
• That a literal "wind fall" can be the basis of a suit
• That such a suit can be taken seriously by the courts
• That the seed company can win in a country that's not considered friendly to such things

One possible repercussion that Monsanto might not like is further down in the article

Some states have considered legislation that would make biotech companies liable for windblown pollen that invades fields of conventional crops, which in some cases are worth more than the engineered varieties. In Canada, organic farmers have filed a class action against Monsanto and another company for allegedly polluting their fields with gene-altered pollen.

Some legal experts said that case might be strengthened by yesterday's ruling.

"If you're going to claim ownership of this gene wherever it lands, then you ought to assume responsibility, too," said Terry Zakreski, Schmeiser's attorney in Saskatoon.