What happens when the Roundup Ready patent expires?

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Monsanto's patent on Roundup Ready soybeans in Canada runs out in August, 2011.

But that doesn't mean Canadian growers get to save part of the crop harvested that fall for seed the next spring, says Trish Jordan, public affairs director for Monsanto Canada. The 2011 crop will be still grown under contract and must be delivered to an elevator as specified in the Technical Use Agreement, Jordan says. Growers can't grow Roundup Ready soybeans without an obligation to Monsanto until the spring of 2013.

"By that time, we are going to have another product on the marketplace that we hope farmers will be interested in," she says.

Monsanto got its U.S. patent on Roundup Ready soybeans first, but that patent is in place until May 2014. How did that happen? "It has to do with when you file," Jordan explains.

The U.S. patent law and the Canadian patent law "are totally different," she says. "What happens in the U.S. is irrelevant" to Canadian growers.  BF