FILE - This July 5, 2008 file photo shows a farmer holding Monsanto's Roundup Ready Soy Bean seeds at his family farm in Bunceton, Mo. A high stakes dispute over soybeans comes before the Supreme Court, with arguments taking place Tuesday. (AP Photo/Dan Gill, File)
None of the justices in arguments at the high court Tuesday seemed ready to endorse farmer Vernon Hugh Bowman's argument that cheap soybeans he bought from a grain elevator are not covered by the Monsanto patents, even though most of them also were genetically modified to resist the company's Roundup herbicide.
Chief Justice John Roberts wondered "why anyone in the world" would invest time and money on seeds if it was so easy to evade patent protection.
The case is being closely watched by researchers and businesses holding patents on DNA molecules, nanotechnologies and other self-replicating technologies.
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