<story><title>Bayer to retire Monsanto name</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/article/us-monsanto-m-a-bayer-closing/bayer-to-close-monsanto-takeover-to-retire-targets-name-idUSKCN1J00IZ?il=0</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>doublescoop</author><text>Check the Monsanto Wikipedia page for more details, but the short version is that Monsanto patented its genetically engineered seeds and then sued farmers for patent infringement if they were found to be growing crops from that seed without a license.&lt;p&gt;The problem with this is that seeds tended to blow between fields, so if your neighbor licensed Monsanto seed and then the next year a bunch of that seed manages to take hold in your field, you&amp;#x27;re liable for a patent infringement.&lt;p&gt;Additionally, they argued, successfully before the Supreme Court in 2013, that additional generations of seed from the initially licensed seed required new licenses from the patent holder.&lt;p&gt;As might be expected, this rubs A LOT of people the wrong way.</text></item><item><author>criley2</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not going to defend Monsanto&amp;#x27;s bad business practices, but I don&amp;#x27;t think I&amp;#x27;ve ever met someone who accurately articulated real problems with Monsanto as opposed to hysteria and conspiracy theory, so this is probably the best move over all.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Eridrus</author><text>&amp;gt; The problem with this is that seeds tended to blow between fields, so if your neighbor licensed Monsanto seed and then the next year a bunch of that seed manages to take hold in your field, you&amp;#x27;re liable for a patent infringement.&lt;p&gt;Do you know of a court case where this actually happened?&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve seen this defense thrown around in the few cases I&amp;#x27;ve seen, but investigators have usually had evidence that it wasn&amp;#x27;t accidental contamination, but rather just being used as an opportunistic defense.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Additionally, they argued, successfully before the Supreme Court in 2013, that additional generations of seed from the initially licensed seed required new licenses from the patent holder.&lt;p&gt;I found this court case: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Bowman_v._Monsanto_Co&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Bowman_v._Monsanto_Co&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;sold the seed from which these soybeans were grown to farmers under a limited use license that prohibited the farmer-buyer from using the seeds for more than a single season or from saving any seed produced from the crop for replanting&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not totally sure what&amp;#x27;s objectionable about this ruling. The original buyers explicitly agreed to the license.&lt;p&gt;I think there is an argument to be made against intellectual property in general, but this doesn&amp;#x27;t seem any more egregious than, e.g. music or software copyright, and most people are quite happy with those.</text></comment>
<story><title>Bayer to retire Monsanto name</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/article/us-monsanto-m-a-bayer-closing/bayer-to-close-monsanto-takeover-to-retire-targets-name-idUSKCN1J00IZ?il=0</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>doublescoop</author><text>Check the Monsanto Wikipedia page for more details, but the short version is that Monsanto patented its genetically engineered seeds and then sued farmers for patent infringement if they were found to be growing crops from that seed without a license.&lt;p&gt;The problem with this is that seeds tended to blow between fields, so if your neighbor licensed Monsanto seed and then the next year a bunch of that seed manages to take hold in your field, you&amp;#x27;re liable for a patent infringement.&lt;p&gt;Additionally, they argued, successfully before the Supreme Court in 2013, that additional generations of seed from the initially licensed seed required new licenses from the patent holder.&lt;p&gt;As might be expected, this rubs A LOT of people the wrong way.</text></item><item><author>criley2</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not going to defend Monsanto&amp;#x27;s bad business practices, but I don&amp;#x27;t think I&amp;#x27;ve ever met someone who accurately articulated real problems with Monsanto as opposed to hysteria and conspiracy theory, so this is probably the best move over all.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bret791</author><text>I think the bigger issue is the &amp;quot;Round-Up Ready&amp;quot; crops and the fact that they produce sterile seeds.&lt;p&gt;Using Round-Up ready seeds allows the use of Round-Up for weed control on your fields, but this can have negative affects on neighboring farms. For example on Field A, populated with Round-Up ready seeds, Round Up is used to control the weeds. However this same spray can affect neighboring field B, which is not populated by Round-Up Ready seeds, causing weeds and crop die or reduced yields... So basically if your neighbor is using Round-Up, you need to also, and your neighbor...etc. So now everyone is locked into Round-Up ready seeds they have to buy every year.</text></comment>