The Rural Voice, 2001-06, Page 7intervention to similar property of B
from which it is indistinguishable,
becomes the property of B. Monsanto
does have ownership in its patented
gene and cell and pursuant to the
Act it has the exclusive use of its
invention. That is an important
factor which distinguishes this case
from the others on which the
defendants rely."
Together, these several
constituents hold the key to this
decision. Mr. Justice MacKay has
implicitly stated that for Monsanto to
have exclusive right to the patent, the
company must be responsible for
protecting those rights, and Monsanto
has illustrated that it is prepared to do
so by its past actions for at least two
other farmers.
Thus, there is a responsibility for
farmers to abide by the patent and
the Technology Use Agreement
(TUA) and for Monsanto to protect
their rights.
Therefore to protect oneself, if you
have grown a patented crop with a
TUA and no longer wish to do so, but
have volunteer crop that contains a
patented gene, you have a
responsibility to notify the patentee
that you have these plants. Further,
you want them removed because you
have no TUA and don't want to
suffer the fate of Mr. Schmeiser, with
a long court battle to ensue.
I suggest that the patentee is then
on the horns of a dilemma. If he
refuses to remove them,.he may have
forgone his right to your using the
patent. If he doesn't willingly remove
them and protect his right, and you
suffer a loss due to non-acceptance in
the marketplace, he may face a civil
§uit by you for loss of profit. If this
happens to be the loss of export
markets because of contaminated
crop, (as is currently possible with
Quest canola, with an estimated loss
of $1.8 billion), we will not have to
worry about any further Monsanto
patents for sure. But, the patentee
must be aware of the volunteer crop
in or ler to remove it and you must
inform him of the problem.
On the other hand, the cost of
cleaning up volunteer crop will not be
small, as we have seen with
Starlink® corn. Be ready then for so-
called terminator technology, but that
will not stop pollen drift in cross-
pollinated crops. Terminator
technology will not end the
patentee's need to clean up volunteer
cross-pollinated crops.
This has become a situation where
it is either you or them, and it has
been shown that if they win, you are
probably long gone. I suggest you
seriously consider protecting your
rights too, as Monsanto has done with
Mr. Schmeiser. There -are at least two
farmers who are on record who have
protected their rights and have done
so at Monsanto's expense.0
— Don Campbell, Embro
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