Percy Schmeiser versus Monsanto

After six years of legal battles in lower courts, a final decision on the Percy Schmeiser versus Monsanto case will be released by the Supreme Court of Canada on Friday, May 21st. Percy Schmeiser is a Canadian farmer who was sued by Monsanto, after genetically engineered (GE) canola was discovered on his farm.

In 1997, Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser accidentally discovered that some of his plants had been contaminated with Monsanto's Roundup Ready canola seed (most likely through wind-borne material). Roundup Ready canola is a strain of canola genetically engineered to be resistant to Monsanto's Roundup (glyphosate) herbicide. Monsanto holds a patent on the genes that make this canola unique, and charges farmers a yearly licensing fee to use it. Despite discovering that his canola was contaminated, Schmeiser followed his normal practice of saving seed from that year's crop and planting it the next spring.

In August 1998, Monsanto launched a lawsuit against Schmeiser. The biotech giant alleged that in knowingly planting seeds containing the company's patented gene without a license, Schmeiser had infringed its patent on Roundup Ready canola. In March 2001. The Federal Court of Canada ruled in favor of Monsanto.

While the court found no evidence that Schmeiser had deliberately contaminated his crops with Monsanto seed, it ruled that because he knew or ought to have known that the seed contained patented material, he shouldn't have planted it without a license - no matter how it got there.

Schmeiser appealed the decision, and in May 2002 his case was heard in the Federal Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal upheld the lower court's decision, unanimously finding in favor of Monsanto. Schmeiser appealed again, and in January 2004 his case went before the Supreme Court of Canada.

Depending on how the Supreme Court addresses the questions put before it, the decision it hands down this week may determine whether (and to what extent) life can be patented; where responsibility lies for GE contamination; and whether farmers' rights or patent rights are valued more highly. The decision will thus have widespread implications for the future of the biotech industry in Canada, the world's third largest grower of GE crops.

Find out more:

- For more background on this case, please see our full-length fact sheet

- Read our story,Victory: Monsanto drops GE Wheat

- Read our story, Monsanto retreat continues in Australia

- Read about other Monsanto withdrawing its European cereal and seed business

- Read our indepth brief about the dangers of GE Wheat

- Visit the Canadian site to find out more about the Canadian situation

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