Bowman v. Monsanto Before the U.S. Supreme Court

In the news release, Bowman v. Monsanto Before the U.S. Supreme Court, issued 18-Feb-2013 by Frommer Lawrence & Haug LLP over PR Newswire, we are advised by the company that Mr. Bowman will be available to the media at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill, 400 New Jersey Avenue, NW. The complete release follows:

Bowman v. Monsanto Before the U.S. Supreme Court

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- A 75-year-old Indiana grain farmer will observe as the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013, weighs arguments over his right to plant and use seeds that he purchased legally.

Vernon Hugh Bowman, who grows soybeans, has carried his fight against $12 billion agribusiness giant Monsanto Company to the highest court in the land as he seeks to earn his living from the soil. He is represented by Frommer Lawrence & Haug LLP.

Monsanto in 2007 sued Mr. Bowman to stop him from using and selling soybean seeds from plants that had, in turn, been grown from seeds genetically modified by Monsanto to produce plants resistant to herbicides. This allows farmers to kill neighboring weeds without harming the soybean plants.

Farmer Bowman legally purchased seeds at a grain elevator, which bought them from farmers who had, with Monsanto's authorization, used the genetically modified Monsanto seeds to grow their soybean crops.

Monsanto claims that Mr. Bowman infringed its patents on herbicide-resistant plants and seeds by using the grain elevator seeds to grow his soybean crops. Mr. Bowman asserts that Monsanto's sales of the original seeds to authorized purchasers exhausted Monsanto's patent rights and therefore Monsanto cannot enforce its patents against second-generation and later seeds that resulted from planting the original seeds.

The U.S. Supreme Court accepted Mr. Bowman's case in October 2012 for the current session. Attorney Mark P. Walters of noted intellectual-property law firm Frommer Lawrence & Haug will argue for Mr. Bowman along with FLH partners Edgar H. Haug and Steven M. Amundson.

NOTE: The FLH legal team will be available to the press in front of the Supreme Court building at approximately 12:30 p.m., immediately following arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court, whose morning session is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 19.

Mr. Bowman will be available until 2 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill, 400 New Jersey Avenue, NW.

For Information, contact:
William F. Kenny
The Dilenschneider Group
Email: [email protected]
Cell: 203-550-3514

FLH Biographies:
Edgar Haug is a founding partner of Frommer Lawrence & Haug LLP and managing partner since 2003.

Focusing on IP and competition law, he litigates and counsels in matters involving pharmaceuticals, biotech, semiconductors and associated manufacturing equipment, shape memory alloys, e-commerce, automotive designs and consumer electronics. 

Mr. Haug is a nationally recognized trial lawyer and consultant in pharmaceutical patent litigation under Hatch-Waxman, and represents clients in patent enforcement and regulatory and patent challenges involving top-selling pharmaceuticals.

He has substantial experience in bench and jury trials and appellate practice, as well as before the UK High Court, German Federal Supreme Court and Tokyo High Court.

He teaches patent trial advocacy for the Practising Law Institute and sits on the Federal Circuit Bar Association Board. He has a chemical engineering degree from Notre Dame and a J.D. from St. John's University.

Steven M. Amundson is a partner focusing on IP litigation, including pre-suit investigations, discovery and trial preparation, trials and appeals. His patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret and unfair competition cases have covered technologies including computers, electronic devices, electromagnetic products, semiconductor fabrication, medical devices, chemicals and "blockbuster" pharmaceuticals.

After receiving his M.S. degree from Ohio State, Mr. Amundson was a nuclear propulsion engineer for Admiral Hyman Rickover's Naval Sea Systems Command, responsible for design review and approval of electrical instrumentation and control equipment for nuclear propulsion plants.

He graduated from Georgetown Law in 1982, and from 1988 to 1997 was with the Intellectual Property Section of the Department of Justice as lead trial counsel in patent and copyright cases. He also argued before the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.

Mark P. Walters is a patent attorney with extensive trial and appellate experience in complex intellectual property cases. His cases include litigation under the Hatch-Waxman Act for innovator drug companies and software litigation involving patented internet and social networking technologies. He is also involved in copyright, design patent, and Lanham Act cases.

His technical background includes work in plant genetics and molecular biology. From 1996 to 1999, he worked in a plant genetics lab with the Agricultural Research Service, the primary research arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he provided technical assistance to research projects investigating genetic controls of seed dormancy.

In addition to litigation, Attorney Walters maintains an active patent prosecution docket, taking disclosures and supervising the drafting of patent applications in several technical fields, including agriculture and software.

SOURCE Frommer Lawrence & Haug LLP