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Re:5 Million Farmers Sue Monsanto for $7.7 Billion by brazzy on Thursday June 07, 2012 @04:23PM (#4081135)
> Also, the Roundup Ready soybeans patent is due to expire in 2014, so in 2 years farmers all around the world get Roundup Ready soybeans for free, just as the patent system intended.

Unless Monsanto suddenly stops selling Roundup and instead sells a different, "new and improved" herbicide with a new set of recently-patented resistent seeds. And lobbies for governments to ban Roundup because of a recently study saying it's a threat to the environment after all.

At least that's how it tends to work in the pharmaceutics industry.

Re:5 Million Farmers Sue Monsanto for $7.7 Billion by hexagonal on Friday June 08, 2012 @05:32AM (#4083455)
Glyphosate's ("Roundup") patent expired in 2000.

This isn't really like the software industry, where there's lock-in effects. Unless you screw up, glyphosate still kills plants.

Re:5 Million Farmers Sue Monsanto for $7.7 Billion by brazzy on Friday June 08, 2012 @09:40AM (#4084088)
Thus the "And lobbies for governments to ban Roundup because of a recently study saying it's a threat to the environment after all." part.