THIRD MONSANTO ANTI-FARMER PATENT REJECTED BY PATENT OFFICE: PUBPAT Request Results in All Claims Being Ruled Invalid
NEW YORK -- June 5, 2007 -- In the third official Office Action to result from challenges filed last fall by the Public Patent Foundation ("PUBPAT") against four Monsanto Company patents related to genetically modified crops being used by the agricultural giant to harass, intimidate, sue - and in some cases literally bankrupt - American farmers, the United States Patent and Trademark Office has rejected all of the claims of a third patent.In the Office Action released yesterday, the Patent Office found that the prior art submitted by PUBPAT invalidated the patent, U.S. Patent No. 5,164,316 (the '316 patent). The Patent Office Examiner also found additional prior art and held that it, too, completely invalidated the patent.
Monsanto has filed dozens of patent infringement lawsuits asserting the '316 patent, and the three other patents challenged by PUBPAT, 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.
The company has the opportunity to respond to the Patent Office's rejection, but third party requests for reexamination, like the one filed by PUBPAT, result in having the subject patent either modified or completely revoked roughly 70% of the time. Decisions in February and May found that two other patents of the four were also completely invalid. A decision regarding the fourth challenged patent has not yet been issued.
"The Patent Office has agreed with our conclusion that Monsanto does not deserve this patent any more than they deserved the two other patents previously rejected," said Dan Ravicher, PUBPAT's Executive Director. "Making matters especially harmful to the public in this case is that Monsanto continues to use these undeserved patents to bully American farmers to the point that many of them are being forced completely out of business."
More information about the reexaminations of the '316 patent and the three other Monsanto patents challenged by PUBPAT, including a copy of the Patent Office's Office Action rejecting all 4 claims of the '316 patent, can be found at PUBPAT > Monsanto Anti-Farmers Patents.
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