Knox County Farmer Takes Soybean Seed Lawsuit to Supreme Court
By: Chris Veech
Updated: February 19, 2013
The case of a Knox County farmer reaches the U.S. Supreme Court, and the justices are likely to side with Monsanto Company in its claim the farmer violated patents on soybean seeds. Vernon Hugh Bowman argued the cheap soybeans he bought from a grain elevator are not covered by the Monsanto patents, even though most of them also were genetically modified to resist the company's Round-Up herbicide. The case is being closely watched by researchers and businesses holding patents on DNA molecules, and other self-replicating technologies.
