[Ip-health] PUBPAT News: Monsanto Patents Asserted Against American Farmers Rejected By Patent Office In PUBPAT Initiated Review

[Public Patent Foundation]

MONSANTO PATENTS ASSERTED AGAINST AMERICAN FARMERS REJECTED BY PATENT
OFFICE IN PUBPAT INITIATED REVIEW: PTO Finds All Claims of All Four
Patents Invalid

NEW YORK =96 July 24, 2007 -- The Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT)
announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has
rejected four key Monsanto patents related to genetically modified crops
that PUBPAT challenged last year because the agricultural giant is using
them to harass, intimidate, sue - and in some cases literally bankrupt -
American farmers.  In its Office Actions rejecting each of the patents,
the USPTO held that evidence submitted by PUBPAT, in addition to other
prior art located by the Patent Office's Examiners, showed that Monsanto
was not entitled to any of the patents.

Monsanto has filed dozens of patent infringement lawsuits asserting the
four challenged patents against American farmers, many of whom are
unable to hire adequate representation to defend themselves in court.
The crime these farmers are accused of is nothing more than saving seed
from one year's crop to replant the following year, something farmers
have done since the beginning of time.

One study of the matter
(http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/Monsantovsusfarmersreport.cfm) found
that, "Monsanto has used heavy-handed investigations and ruthless
prosecutions that have fundamentally changed the way many American
farmers farm. The result has been nothing less than an assault on the
foundations of farming practices and traditions that have endured for
centuries in this country and millennia around the world, including one
of the oldest, the right to save and replant crop seed."  The lawsuits
filed by Monsanto against American farmers include Monsanto Company v.
Mitchell Scruggs, et al, 459 F.3d 1328 (Fed. Cir. 2006), Monsanto
Company v. Kem Ralph individually, et al, 382 F.3d 1374 (Fed. Cir. 2004)
and Monsanto Company v. Homan McFarling, 363 F.3d 1336 (Fed. Cir. 2004).

Although Monsanto has the opportunity to respond to the Patent Office's
rejections of the patents (U.S. Patents Nos. 5,164,316, 5,196,525,
5,322,938 and 5,352,605), third party requests for re-examination, like
the ones filed by PUBPAT against the four Monsanto patents, are
successful in having the reviewed patents either changed or completely
revoked more than two-thirds of the time.

"We are extremely pleased that the Patent Office has agreed with us that
Monsanto does not deserve these patents that it has used to unfairly
bully American farmers," said Dan Ravicher, PUBPAT's Executive Director.
 "Hopefully, this is the beginning of the end of the harm being caused
to the public by Monsanto's aggressive assertion of these patents, which
threatens family farms and a diverse American food supply."

More information, including copies of the Office Actions issued by the
U.S. Patent & Trademark Office rejecting the four Monsanto patents, can
be found at http://www.pubpat.org/monsantovfarmers.htm.

Contact:

Daniel Ravicher, Executive Director
Public Patent Foundation
(212) 796-0570
info@pubpat.org
http://www.pubpat.org

About the Public Patent Foundation

The Public Patent Foundation ("PUBPAT") is a not-for-profit legal
services organization working to protect the public from the harms
caused by the patent system, particularly the harms caused by undeserved
patents and unsound patent policy.  PUBPAT provides the general public
and those specific persons or businesses otherwise deprived of access to
the system governing patents, with representation, advocacy, and
education.  To be kept informed of PUBPAT News, subscribe to the PUBPAT
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