You wouldn't think that one man could corner the market on a widely grown staple -- but then again you're probably not that familiar with U.S. patent law and its impact on the import market. This is a tale of what is termed "biopiracy," using patents to lay claim to items from the developing world.
Larry Proctor returned from Mexico in 1994 with a package of multi-colored beans. The beans, similar to a pinto bean, are known as Phaseolus vulgaris, or the Mayocoba bean. He selected a yellow varietal, planted the beans and allowed them to self-pollinate. Proctor argued that this process had created a distinct bean plant and filed a patent application for what he termed the Enola bean in 1996.
Three years later, the patent was granted for "a new field bean variety
that produces distinctly colored yellow seed which remains relatively
unchanged by season." Proctor had a 20-year patent covering beans and
hybrids.
Proctor's company, Pod-Ners, then began suing bean importers arguing
that the importation of any yellow Mexican beans with the same genetic
profile was a violation of his patent. Farmers, importers, and legal
experts were outraged that
a bean, which was commonly planted and sold, could become the exclusive
domain of someone in fewer than five years. Critics saw it as a sign of how
industrial nations were taking advantage of farmers in developing
nations, who had never thought to catalogue seeds that had been in use
for decades or hundreds of years.
A legal challenge by the
International Center for Tropical Agriculture led to a re-examination
of the patent, which was ultimately revoked in May 2008. In July of this year, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the decision
to revoke the patent. The last possible appeal for Proctor and
Pod-Ners would be to petition the U.S. Supreme Court.
Take note, would-be food inventors, of this cautionary episode.
[Image via Flickr: Stuti]
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See, "interesting" isn't exactly the term I'd use for this article. I'm sorry, but Fat City has become a relative snoozefest over the last few weeks. I used to find the majority of articles worthy of commenting on, but lately, I barely read the first two sentences before I am turned off and move on to see if the next story is more interesting.
I hate to be blunt, but it really makes me miss Owen. There has GOT to be something better to talk about than bean patents and electric tongues.
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