If some of your patented seeds from a farm growing them under contract with you, were to end up at a neighboring farm that is not under contract with you, what legal action would you take to either retrieve the seeds or the plants produced by the patented seeds? What legal action would your company take if the seeds ended up on the farm that is not under contract with you purely by an act of nature and produced plants?

Expert response from Tom Helscher

Former Director, Corporate Affairs, Monsanto Company

Thursday, 15/08/2013 15:28

We would not take any legal action. For instance, Monsanto has a long-standing public commitment that “it has never been, nor will it be, Monsanto’s policy to exercise its patent rights where trace amounts of our patented seeds or traits are present in a farmer’s fields as a result of inadvertent means.”