Potato farmers cry foul as PepsiCo sues them

Re:Potato farmers cry foul as PepsiCo sues them by derekp7 on Thursday April 25, 2019 @02:00PM (#19750814)

The thing is, if it is using traditional selection processes, then all the researcher is doing is discovering a naturally occuring set of genes that have a desired effect. This is no different than if someone randomly discovers a new lifeform in their yard, they can't claim exclusive rights over all descendants of that lifeform. The amount of work someone puts into it has no bearing on patentability.

Same thing as if an astronomer points a telescope to a patch of sky that has never been observed. Can they own exclusive rights to the image, and prevent others from pointing their telescopes to that same patch to make their own image? What if that astronomer spent 10 years looking at different galaxies and other astro objects, to find that one nebula that has artistic value?

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Re:Potato farmers cry foul as PepsiCo sues them by MarkMc on Thursday April 25, 2019 @11:43PM (#19754670)

Medicine Man [0] is a 1992 movie about a researcher who discovers a species of ant which has cancer-curing properties. As a teenager at the time I thought, "Why doesn't some pharmaceutical company simply test every ant species to find a cancer cure?".

Today my answer to my younger self would be, "Because there are thousands of ant species and the company couldn't patent its discovery, so there is no incentive to conduct such expensive research"

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine_Man_(film)

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Re:Potato farmers cry foul as PepsiCo sues them by Kalium on Thursday April 25, 2019 @02:12PM (#19750936)

> The thing is, if it is using traditional selection processes, then all the researcher is doing is discovering a naturally occuring set of genes that have a desired effect.

OK. What if the researcher instead engages in genetic engineering and produces an onion that is gene-for-gene identitcal and indeed exhibits the behavior? Should that result be protectable?

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Re:Potato farmers cry foul as PepsiCo sues them by miskin on Thursday April 25, 2019 @02:30PM (#19751133)

What if bees transfer these genes to your field next to customer that bought those special seeds? Should you worry about using seeds from your field due to possible legal issues?

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Re:Potato farmers cry foul as PepsiCo sues them by rad_gruchalski on Thursday April 25, 2019 @03:16PM (#19751537)

Even better - what if you actually do not want these modified crops. Who do you sue?

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Re:Potato farmers cry foul as PepsiCo sues them by NeuNeurosis on Thursday April 25, 2019 @04:25PM (#19752175)

This has already happened.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-monsanto-lawsuit/kans...

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Re:Potato farmers cry foul as PepsiCo sues them by AlexandrB on Thursday April 25, 2019 @02:33PM (#19751156)

> Should that result be protectable?

No, because living organisms should not be patentable/protectable.

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Re:Potato farmers cry foul as PepsiCo sues them by thereisnospork on Thursday April 25, 2019 @04:15PM (#19752099)

Please explain why you feel that should be the case; a statement is not an argument.

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Re:Potato farmers cry foul as PepsiCo sues them by silversconfused on Thursday April 25, 2019 @07:46PM (#19753610)

This doesn't require an argument. It requires common sense.

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Re:Potato farmers cry foul as PepsiCo sues them by thereisnospork on Saturday April 27, 2019 @02:42AM (#19764183)

Yes it does; reasonable people are disagreeing.

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