• By
  • Brent Kendall
Associated Press

An elderly Indiana farmer’s legal fight with Monsanto Co. is coming to the Supreme Court, setting the stage for a potentially high-stakes patent case.

The justices said Friday they will consider the planting tactics of Indiana farmer Vernon Bowman, who appealed to the high court after Monsanto successfully sued him for infringing the company’s patents on Roundup Ready seeds, which produce crops resistant to weed-killer.

The question at issue: Just how far do Monsanto’s patent rights extend? The company requires growers to use the seeds only for a single crop, and they can’t save the “second-generation” seeds from the harvest. Monsanto imposes the conditions because its technology reproduces itself in each generation of seeds. If farmers could replant seeds taken from each harvest, they could avoid paying for Monsanto’s biotechnology in future plantings, it says.

For some of his soybean plantings, Mr. Bowman bought Monsanto seeds and abided by the company’s terms. But to save some money on a riskier late-season crop, Mr. Bowman bought and planted soybeans from a grain elevator that housed seeds harvested by other farmers. Those soybeans were a mix that included some containing Monsanto’s technology.  Mr. Bowman later saved the second-generation seeds from that harvest and planted them in subsequent years.

Mr. Bowman argues the lower court rulings for Monsanto gave the company an unfair and unprecedented level of patent protection for its seeds, even after they had been sold into commerce.

Monsanto says the farmer hoped and expected to grow herbicide-resistant crops without paying for the technology. It says Mr. Bowman’s position would eviscerate its patent rights.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case over the objections of the Obama administration, which urged the justices to stay out of the dispute. The U.S. solicitor general warned that a Supreme Court ruling could affect patents on other technologies with self-replicating features, such as man-made cell lines, DNA molecules and nanotechnologies.

Oral arguments are likely to take place early next year.