[CH] OT Indy first state to protect farmers from Monsanto

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 The state of Indiana has just passed a new law, "House
> Enrolled Act 1571", to help protect farmers under investigation or being
> sued by seed companies for patent infringement.  The law went into
> effect on July 1, 2003.  A summary::
> 
> -----If a seed supplier with a court order comes onto a farmer's land to
> take samples, the farmer may accompany the supplier or his agent doing
> the sampling, may take identical samples, and may conduct independent
> sampling.
> 
> -----If a farmer possesses a product that is patented by the seed
> supplier but the farmer did not intend to possess the product, the
> farmer is not liable for patent infringement, i.e., a farmer can not be
> held liable just because the wind blew.
> 
> -----If a seed supplier brings an action against a farmer that is
> determined by a court to be frivolous, unreasonable, or groundless, the
> farmer may recover costs associated with or incurred because of that
> action.
> 
> HEA 1571 doesn't really due anything to that would allow somebody to use
> or propagate patented seeds without a license from the patent holder.
> But the large seed companies have unfairly bankrupted farmers who have
> unknowingly had their crops cross from their neighbors' patented crops
> or where the courts had to rely solely on the evidence gathered and
> tested by the seed company and this new law provides some protection for
> the farmer.

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