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GMO Patents on Seeds
Ever since the introduction of patents on genetically modified seeds of plants in the 1980s, the number of legal issues have only increased (GMOs - top five concerns for family farmers 2019). Ever since the reign of massive corporate biotechnology companies such as Monsanto and Dupont Pioneer in the agriculture business, not only have they brought terror to farmers from an economical standpoint but have also raised many concerns surrounding the ethics of patents surrounding genetically modified crop seeds as well. In addition, patents for foods that are genetically modified are often very broad and deal with biopiracy, a term for when companies or organizations may claim ownership and will privately appropriate resources that are available to the public and not just them (Nestle, 2010). Moreover, biotech companies that own patents to genetically modified seeds do not only exploit the terms of their patents for the wealth of their company but do so in a fashion which often destroys businesses of farmers not using their products and is deemed by many as unethical and illegal.

Legal and Ethical Issues Surrounding The Patents
Some of the most disputed legal issues between the companies and the farmers or consumers range from concerns surrounding how these enterprises aggressively utilize their patent rights to their advantage and whether they are legal and or ethical. Furthermore, these corporations favour farmers who may not already be using their seed products because they can just sue them and make them a customer when the company's patented seeds naturally arrive to that farmer's field. To explain, whenever the crops of farmers using GMO plants are pollinated either through birds, insects, or even through wind, the pollen from the GMO plant can naturally arrive at another farmer’s field who may be growing organically or without the use of GMOs (Ma, 2012). When that pollen arrives and plants itself in that field over time, the company that owns the patent of the GMO seed can sue those farmers for having their company's seeds on their fields. This becomes an issue known as seed piracy and the companies can legally sue these farmers as a result (Ma, 2012). Additionally, biotech corporations that own patents of the seeds will often create very specific contracts and agreements which farmers that use the seeds must agree to, and the farmers are also forced to buy new seeds from the company every year or else they will be liable for “patent infringement” (GMOs - top five concerns for family farmers 2019). Although this is not the farmer’s fault and is often purposely done by biotech companies. It is also suprising but truthful to state that the companies will usually win the legal dispute and cause the farmer to lose money each time. These issues have uprisen over the course of the last few decades because large corporations such as Monsanto have been exploiting these tactics for wealth. The company Monsanto has been responsible for many of the exploitation techniques that exist today and because of this, at one point, the company used to own 80% of the market's GMO seed patents (Monsanto n.d.). Moreover, in 2011, over 60 farmers in Canada, agricultural organizations, and seed businesses filed a lawsuit against the Monsanto Company in order to challenge the seed patents which the company owned (Monsanto n.d.). This was an effort by the farmers to pre-emptively take care of the patent issue as they did not want to be sued by Monsanto if the company's seeds naturally arrived at their fields in the near future, but by the end of the case, Monsanto came out victorious and was able to continue its reign over small businesses and other farmers (Monsanto n.d.). Additionally, in 2009 Monsanto sued four Ontario farmers for keeping and reusing the company's patented herbicide tolerant soybeans known as "Roundup Ready" (Monsanto n.d.). Since reusing and holding onto old GMO seeds was against Monsanto's patent agreements, the court ruled that each farmer must pay anywhere from $9,000-$68,000 for Monsanto's court costs and that they would be denied all access to purchase Monsanto products in the future (Monsanto n.d.).

Through these cases not only did the masses of farmers and others start believing how unethical the Monsanto's core values are, but also made them feel as if they must continue their work while living in fear of these enterpirses. For more information regarding Monsanto and its saddening history as a company can be read on: https://cban.ca/gmos/issues/monsanto/.

Restrictions on the study and publication of GMO Seed Research
The research of genetically modified seeds is also greatly restricted by the biotechnology companies and will require researchers to obtain a license from the company and follow their terms and agreements when researching (GMOs - top five concerns for family farmers 2019). Also, only certain research can be made be public about the GMO seeds, usually research that is beneficial to the company. If any research that is not allowed by the company is released, both the researcher and the publisher will likely be sued and will likely lose the court case as well.

Issues between Corporations
The problem that arises when patents are brought into the world of genetically modified seeds is that all of the biotechnology companies want to have ownership of all of the patents. As a result, one of the problems that surrounds many corporations patenting seeds of genetically modified foods is that they will have disputes with each other regarding which company should own the patent to the GMO seed product (Nestle, 2010). As a result only a few companies actually end up owning most of the market share of the patents. Moreover, this corporate patent issue is so great that 60% of the seed market is controlled by only 4 companies, which are Monsanto, Syngenta, Du Pont, and Dow (GMOs - top five concerns for family farmers 2019). These biotechnology enterprises will end up spending millions of dollars sometimes to win the rightful ownership of the patents, but they deem it sensible as they can then use those patents to make their money back.

More information regarding the issues between the corporations can be found on: https://www.farmaid.org/issues/gmos/gmos-top-5-concerns-for-family-farmers/

The Two Sides of the Argument
As in any legal issue, there are two sides to the story, one from the side of the farmers which face most of the effect of the company's actions, and that of the biotechnological companies. The side residing with the farmers will state that the use of patented genetically modified seeds for their crops in their farms makes their entire business and livelihood reliant on the biotech companies from which they buy these products (Should genetically engineered seeds be patented? 2020). It is also a common belief amongst most organic farmers and other non-GMO seed users that such a natural process of farming should not be exploited by these companies and should not be allowed for ones self-gain (Should genetically engineered seeds be patented? 2020). Considering this side of the argument, there are beliefs on the side of the large corporations which own the patents that they should be allowed to re-compensate their expenses. They believe this because they spend and invest hundreds of thousands and/or even millions on the development and mass production of genetically modified seeds and on obtaining patents from the government (Should genetically engineered seeds be patented? 2020). Although, it is important to mention that the patents for GMO seeds were created in the first place as a way for the government to provide companies with exclusive rights to seeds which required great economical investments in the technological development and as it would promote other companies to try and innovate in different fashions with different designs and plans for success (Zhou, n.d.).

Conclusion
As long as technological corporation giants in agriculture are allowed to own patents for their genetically modified seeds of various foods, or are allowed to misuse these patents, it is very unlikely that the legal issues that exist today in this market will decrease. Farmers continue to fight against these biotechnological giants every day.