By Dennis Crouch
Bowman v. Monsanto (Supreme Court Docket No. 11-796, 2012)
In 2011, the Federal Circuit again affirmed that Monsanto's genetically modified seeds patents can be used to stop farmers from saving and replanting the GM seeds. The farmer, Vernon Bowman, then petitioned the Supreme Court asking for a writ of certiorari – presenting the following question:
Patent exhaustion delimits rights of patent holders by eliminating the right to control or prohibit use of the invention after an authorized sale. In this case, the Federal Circuit refused to find exhaustion where a farmer used seeds purchased in an authorized sale for their natural and foreseeable purpose - namely, for planting. The question presented is:
Whether the Federal Circuit erred by (1) refusing to find patent exhaustion in patented seeds even after an authorized sale and by (2) creating an exception to the doctrine of patent exhaustion for self-replicating technologies?
In its brief-in-opposition, Monsanto reformulated the question as follows:
Whether the Federal Circuit correctly ruled that Monsanto's patent rights in biotechnology related to genetically modified plants (here, patented technologies that make soybeans resistant to glyphosate-based herbicides) are independently applicable to each generation of soybeans embodying the invention, such that a grower who, without authorization from Monsanto, creates a new generation of genetically modified soybeans infringes Monsanto's patents.
CVSG: Now, the Supreme Court has invited the Solicitor General to file briefs expressing the views of the United States in the case. This is a significant step toward grant because it shows some interest in the case. Typically a call for the views of the Solicitor General (CVSG) requires the vote of at least four justices. However, those votes appear to be easier to obtain than a vote to grant certiorari or a vote to reverse the lower court. A study of 30,000 petitions reported that a petition on the paid docket is four times more likely to be granted once the Court calls for a response. Thompson and Wachtell, An Empirical Analysis of Supreme Court Certiorari Petition Procedures: The Call for Response and the Call for the Views of the Solicitor General, 16 George Mason L. Rev. 237 (2009). In his study of patent cases, Professor Duffy found that the SG's opinion is extremely important in predicting whether the Supreme Court decides to hear a case on the merits. John F. Duffy, The Federal Circuit in the Shadow of the Solicitor General, 78 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 518 (2010).
DOJ – USPTO – FTC – ETC.: The USPTO would almost certainly agree with the Federal Circuit's opinion and recommend against a grant of certiorari. Of course, the Supreme Court is not asking the opinion of Raymond Chen (USPTO Solicitor General), but rather the opinion of Solicitor General of the United States (acting on behalf of the US). In the power struggle, the USPTO is only one voice and may well lose-out here to other interests (as it has in other recent cases). In 2005, the SG (then Paul Clement) filed a brief in the parallel case of McFarling v. Monsanto recommending that the petition be denied. The McFarling petition did not focus on exhaustion. However, in a footnote the SG brief noted that "whether (and, if so, to what extent) the patent-exhaustion doctrine applies to restrictions on the use of a materially identical patented product that was produced by the patented product sold by the patentee" is "novel."
Mark Walters of Frommer Lawrence & Haug is lead counsel for Bowman. Seth Waxman is counsel of record for Monsanto.
