Tony Del Plato wrote: > Are we reading/speaking the same language: patent revoked. While the legal & > technical issues are wrestled with, regardless of how long it took, the > strange irony is that Monsanto's earlier arguments, prior to its > appropriation of the seeds, were used against it in the recent decision. The > patent on one of the most common foods is no longer valid.
The patent would have expired in another year *anyway.* > I think it's > important that we "see" a crack in the Monsanto armor. Not if there isn't one. > It will take much > more to "decomidify" patents on foods and living things, but most struggles > are won by a series of small steps. This was not one of those steps. The effect of the ruling on the remainder of Monsanto's patent portfolio is nothing. Nada. Zero. > Several years ago, WR Grace lost it's > patent on products from the neem tree, again in Europe, years after it > attempted to appropriate the source of ingredients used for thousands of > years by peoples of India to make medicines & cosmetics. Percy Schmeiser > lost his case in Canada based upon the fact that he "knowingly" planted > round up rape seed. The Canadian high courts ducked the issue of resolving > "ownership" of the genetic materials. I think it's important that every > chink in corporate control and the corporate state is acknowledged and > celebrated. Sure, but this was not such an occasion. Look at the scoreboard again: Monsanto: 13 out of 14 possible years of gains from the soy patent. ETC Group: 13 years of legal fees down the drain without establishing any useful precedent. > I'm getting a sense that we're having a hair splitting > discussion here. Well, I don't have the time (or apparently the ability) to explain the concept of a Pyrrhic victory, so I'll stop. But I can tell you that Monsanto cried all the way to the bank. Jon _______________________________________________ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
