Law Commons^™

How Real Is The Concern That Seed Patents Will Turn Farmers Into Inadvertent Infringers?, Christopher M. Holman

Faculty Works

The fear that farmers could be found liable for patent infringement based on the inadvertent presence of patented genetically modified plants on the farmer’s fields has led to calls for limitations on the scope and enforceability of patents. These “reforms” would be especially problematic for agricultural biotechnology companies like Monsanto, but the repercussions could be more widespread, impacting a host of important cutting-edge technologies like synthetic biology and nanotechnology. Although stories of farmers being sued by Monsanto after their fields where inadvertently contaminated by genetic drift are widely circulated, inadvertent infringement based upon genetic drift or the presence of trace …