Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

MON—When do patents on Roundup expire? Soon I assume.

Roundup (the herbicide) has been off-patent for several years, but the patent on Monsanto’s original Roundup Ready soybeans (i.e. soybeans engineered to be resistant to Roundup) expires in 2014.

In 2011, MON launched an upgraded product called Roundup Ready 2 Yield (#msg-45323299), and many growers switched from the original Roundup Ready soybeans to RR2Y because RR2Y does, in fact, yield more bushels per acre. As a result, MON stopped promoting the original RR soybeans and decided that it would no longer enforce the license prohibition on re-using those seeds.

Thus, the case before the USSC now is not about RR soybeans per se, but rather the larger issue of whether biotech-seed licenses can restrict growers from reusing seeds and thereby making unlimited copies of a patented product. If the USSC reversed the lower courts and ruled against MON, it would gut the ag-biotech industry, which is why I’m pretty sure they won’t.