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Full-Text Articles in Law
Seed Patents, Patent Exhaustion, And Third Parties - Bowman V. Monsanto Co., Dennis D. Crouch
Seed Patents, Patent Exhaustion, And Third Parties - Bowman V. Monsanto Co., Dennis D. Crouch
Faculty Publications
Monsanto patents cover genetically modified glyphosate-resistant soybeans. A farmer purchased soybeans from a commodity market and argues that the “first sale doctrine” exhausts the patent rights as to those soybeans and their progeny. If successful, the farmer can save and replant the soybeans without paying licensing fees. Monsanto argues that exhaustion does not apply to new soybeans grown through replanting; even rights in the parent seeds are exhausted. In addition, Monsanto argues that the purchased soybeans are bound by a use-restriction servitude that bars farmers from planting seeds purchased from the commodity market.
A Trademark Justification For Design Patent Rights, Dennis D. Crouch
A Trademark Justification For Design Patent Rights, Dennis D. Crouch
Faculty Publications
This article presents a new set of empirical results to support the theoretical construct that design patents fill a gap in trade dress law protection. Based on the data, I tentatively reject the oft-stated conventional wisdom that design patents are worthless for many because procurement is too slow, expensive, and difficult. Rather, based on a first-of-its-kind analysis of the prosecution history files of a large sample of recently issued design patents, I conclude that the current design patent examination system operates as a de facto registration system. Notably, more than ninety-eight percent (98%) of the patents in my study were …