• Monsanto only protects its intellectual property in situations where we believe there has been a knowing and deliberate violation.

• The Schmeiser case was not about accidental or innocent infringement of a patented technology.

• Mr. Schmeiser knowingly and deliberately planted, harvested and sold Roundup Ready canola without paying the required license fee, an assertion supported by the findings of the Federal Court of Canada, Federal Court of Appeal in Canada and the Supreme Court of Canada.  All of these courts ruled that the subject matter claimed within the patent for Roundup Ready canola falls within the Patent Act and that Mr. Percy Schmeiser and Schmeiser Enterprises Ltd. of Bruno, Saskatchewan infringed that patent.

Background Messages:

• The Trial Court found that the sheer quantity and commercial quality of Roundup Ready canola found in Mr. Schmeiser’s crops in 1998 could not be reasonably explained by any of the possible sources suggested by Mr. Schmeiser

  • In fact, Mr. Schmeiser testified at trial that he sprayed a portion of his 1997 crop with Roundup, harvested whatever crop survived, set aside all the seed in a special truck and then the following year, he planted 1,000 acres with the seed that he set aside in this truck.  This, despite knowing that it was Roundup tolerant and was considered by Mr. Schmeiser to be a contaminant.

• Monsanto has always believed that Mr. Schmeiser violated our patent on Roundup Ready canola by knowingly and deliberately planting, harvesting, segregating and selling Roundup Ready canola without paying the required license fee.