Whose idea is it anyway?
On Wednesday, the EU’s highest court ruled that Monsanto cannot prevent the importation of soy meal from Argentina, despite the fact that it is derived from a genetically modified soy bean patented by the company. In effect, the court decided that the offspring of patented seeds are not subject to the same legal constraints as the originals.
New knowledge can be costly to develop. Enticing private parties to innovate requires some mechanism by which initial costs stand a good chance of being recovered. Patents accomplish this by conferring a lawful (but temporary) monopoly on its holder.
But what is the proper scope of a patent? Should Monsanto be entitled to royalties from the offspring -pure or hybrid- of their proprietary seed design? Or does it unnecessarily stifle further innovation to give a patent holder unlimited control over their discovery and all derivatives of it?
-Charles
Image used under a Creative Commons attribution license from Flickr user skasuga
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