Monsanto wins Supreme Court IP case

Following a string of setbacks and muddy rulings in biotech patent cases, the biotech industry won an unambiguous victory Monday in a case pitting an individual farmer against Monsanto Co. (NYSE:MON). The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Bowman v Monsanto that Vernon Hugh Bowman infringed Monsanto's patent rights when he grew soybeans that he'd purchased from a grain elevator. Bowman argued that Monsanto's patent rights were "exhausted" when other farmers sold genetically modified soybeans to the elevator.

In the court's (see BioCentury, Feb. 25). ...