Wrangling with the legal issues enforces consistency in our approach to the laws that govern our society. This approach is absolutely necessary in order to ensure that the base patent laws that are intended to promote innovation are extended logically in their interpretation.
Monsanto has spent incredible amounts of money and effort in pushing genetic engineering forward in order to create more food for the planet. Shutting them out from being able to profit from that effort would seem to be the only notion that is "ridiculous".
The exercise of coming up with a consistent legal approach in dealing with their claims is perfectly legitimate and noble.
> Monsanto has spent incredible amounts of money and effort in pushing genetic engineering forward in order to create more food for the planet.
I think you are misinterpreting Monsanto's mission to a frightening degree. Google posilac for instance.
Monsanto is good at PR, I knew that but that they're able to position themselves as the saviors of the planet is beyond what my cynical imagination could come up with.
And they've made it so that it is annoying to get, in bulk, seed which they cannot claim copyright or patents over.
You get to support that farmers are violating Monsanto's rights by replanting 2G seeds, or you get to claim that Monsanto has moved the world forward by making better plants for everyone--these claims are mutually exclusive if you are optimizing for "The most seeds and plants for everyone."
Wrangling with the legal issues enforces consistency in our approach to the laws that govern our society. This approach is absolutely necessary in order to ensure that the base patent laws that are intended to promote innovation are extended logically in their interpretation.
Monsanto has spent incredible amounts of money and effort in pushing genetic engineering forward in order to create more food for the planet. Shutting them out from being able to profit from that effort would seem to be the only notion that is "ridiculous".
The exercise of coming up with a consistent legal approach in dealing with their claims is perfectly legitimate and noble.