Monsanto's Patent & Soybean as Seeds

choi

Adam Liptak, Supeme Court Appers o Defensd Patet on Soybean. New York Times, Feb 2013.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/2 ... in-patent-case.html

Note:
(a) Grain elevator
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grain_elevator
("Prior to the advent of the grain elevator, grain was usually handled in bags rather than in BULK (large quantities of loose grain). The elevator was invented by a merchant named Joseph Dart and an engineer named Robert Dunbar during 1842–43, in Buffalo, New York. Using the steam-powered flour mills of Oliver Evans as their model, they invented the MRINE LEG, which scooped loose grain out of the hulls of ships and elevated it to the top of a MARINE TOWER" [1])
(i) bulk cargo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulk_cargo
(ii) Reference 1 in quotation is

William J Brown, American Colossus: the Grain Elevator 1843-1943. Colossus Books, 2009.
(iii) Naturally we can not buy the book just fto understand the terminology.
(iv) Recall Buffalo, New York is on the shore of Lake Erie.
(v) For marine tower, see

Cris Riley, Marine Tower - Concrete Central Grain Elevator - Buffalo, New York. Flickr, Sept 12, 2012.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chr ... t-72157631616970731
(vi) marine leg
(A) Ship Intake. Redler,undated.
http://www.redler.com/en/applications/ship-intake/

The photo to the left of the legend (whose heading is: "Portside Engineering") displays a marine leg dangling over water in a port, waiting for a cago ship to arrive.
(B) William J Brown, The Standard Elevator. In American Colossus: The Grain Elevator, May 11, 2011 (blog)
http://american-colossus.blogspot.com/2010_05_09_archive.html
("The Standard Elevator was designed by A.E. Baxter Engineering and built by James Stewart Engineering in Buffalo, NY, in 1928. An extension was added in 1942 by M.-Hague")

The first to photos, side by side, shows a marine leg dipping into grain to scoop it up (to a marine tower). That photo's legend reads, "One of the Standard's marine legs, thrust into the hull of the JL Mauthe."  "JL Mauthe" is the name of a ship.

(b) United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uni ... the_Federal_Circuit
(located at Washington, DC; section 1 Jurisdiction: Among other things, the Federal Circuit has exclusive jurisdiction over appeals from United States district courts relating to patents)

* CAFed is short hand for Court of Appeals for Federal Circuit. (Boston is the base of United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, whose shorthand notation is CA1.)
(c) There is no need to read the opinion below (which, like District Ciourt, decided in favor of Monsanto):

Monsanto Co v Bowman (CAFed 2011) 657 F.3d 1341.
(d) Regarding patent exhaustion. The Wikipedia page under that title is not well written. So I will go to the last Supreme Court case in the Court's website:

Quanta Computer, Inc v LG Electronics, Inc (2008) 553 US 617. http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/07pdf/06-937.pdf
(i) I will sumarize the case: LG Electronics (LGE) bought 3 patents, licensed the patents to Intel Corporation (Intel), and authorizes Intel to manufacture and sell microprocessorsand chipsets using the LGE patents. A computer manufacturers (Quanta) purchased microprocessors and chipsets from Intel, and then manufactured computers using Intel parts in combination with non-Intel parts, but did not modify the Intel components. LGE sued Quanta (but not Intel), asserting that this combination (specifically: with non-Intel parts) infringed the LGE Patents. District Court Ended the case in Quanta's favor but changed its mind. Quanta appealed and Federal Circuit ruled against Quanta. Quanta petitioned Supreme Court, which granted the petition and in a unianimous decision reversed Federal Circuit and concluded the case in Quanta's favor--because "Intel’s sale to Quanta exhausted LGE’s patent rights." Holding (d), at web page 3 of SYLLABUS.
(ii) Supreme Court illuminates the doctrine of patent exhaustion in Part II (starting at web page 5 of the OPINION), with an opening sentence: "The longstanding doctrine of patent exhaustion providesthat the initial authorized sale of a patented item terminates all patent rights to that item."

choi

(2) Ian Berry, The Future of Patent Law Rests in a Farmer's Hands; Dispute pits farmer vs Monsanto in case that may affect industries from software to nanotech. Wall Stret Journal, Feb 15, 2013.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 02021998753556.html

six consecutive paragraphs:

"Mr Bowman came to the legal fight with slim resources. He says he filed for bankruptcy protection in the 1980s and has few assets.

"A lifelong bachelor, Mr. Bowman says he felt he had nothing to lose by taking on Monsanto. 'I decided to take my meager resources and fight Monsanto to the bitter end,' he says.

"As the dispute escalated in the 2000s, Mr Bowman, who studied agronomy at Purdue University in the 1950s, visited the one-story library in Sandborn, a town of about 500. There, he learned to use a computer and spent hours researching patent issues.

"In 2007, when Monsanto sued him for patent infringement, he hired an Indiana lawyer to represent him. But he eventually ran out of money and decided to argue the case himself in a federal-district court in Terre Haute, Ind. The court ruled for Monsanto in 2009 and ordered Mr Bowman to pay $84,000 in damages.

"After that defeat, Mr Bowman's case was foundering. But the Federal Circuit Bar Association, a national group based in Washington, heard about his plight in 2010 and persuaded Frommer Lawrence & Haug LLP to represent the farmer pro bono.

"Mark P Walters, a partner in the firm's Seattle office, will be arguing his first Supreme Court case. Monsanto is represented by Seth Waxman, a Washington lawyer and former US Solicitor General who has argued more than 60 cases before the high court.

My comment:
(a) There is no need to read the rest of the WSJ report. This report inroduced us to the farmer, "75-year-old Vernon 'Hugh' Bowman."
(b) The report mentioned "a federal-district court in Terre Haute, Ind."
(i) That is United States District Court for Southern District of Indiana(Terre Haute Division). State o Indiana is divided into Northern District and Southern Distrit, each with its own District Court. The Sothern District is futher into three divisions (so that poeple within the district can go to the closest one).
(ii) Terre Haute, Indiana
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terre_Haute,_Indiana
(As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 60,785)

Quote: "The name of the city has been derived from the French phrase terre haute, meaning 'High Ground.' * * * It was named by French explorers in the area in the early 18th century * * * When the area was claimed by the French and English, these highlands were considered the border between Canada and Louisiana.