page_title: J. E. M. Ag Supply, Inc. v. Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.
section_title: Dissent
hierarchical_section_title: J. E. M. Ag Supply, Inc. v. Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. / Supreme Court / Dissent
caption_attribution_description: Stephen Breyer, U.S. Supreme Court judge.
context_page_description: J. E. M. Ag Supply, Inc. v. Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., 534 U.S. 124, was a decision of the United States Supreme Court holding for the first time that utility patents may be issued for crops and other flowering plants under 35 U.S.C. § 101. The Supreme Court rejected the argument that the exclusive ways to protect these plants are under the Plant Variety Protection Act, 7 U.S.C. § 2321, and the Plant Patent Act of 1930, 35 U.S.C. §§ 161-164.
context_section_description: Justice Stephen Breyer dissented, joined by Justice John Paul Stevens. They believed the terms “manufacture” and “composition of matter” do not cover crop plants (sexually reproduced or flowering plants) and their seeds. That was because Congress intended the two more specific PPA and PVPA statutes to exclude patent protection under the more generic utility patent statute. Further, "this Court neither considered, nor decided, this question in Chakrabarty."
  In Chakrabarty the issue was whether the words “manufacture” and “composition of matter” in § 101 “included such living things as bacteria–a substance to which neither of the two specific plant Acts refers.” The Chakrabarty Court then decided that § 101 covered “a 'new' bacterium because it was 'a non-naturally occurring manufacture or composition of matter' that was 'not nature’s handiwork.'” It said nothing about plants (such as corn). Further a bacterium is not the kind of plant that the PPA and PVPA “had in mind.” Thus, “Chakrabarty neither asked, nor answered . . . the question now before us.”
  He ended by criticizing the majority for not making "an effort to divine the human intent that underlies the statute," based on "an analysis of language, structure, history, and purpose."
caption: Justice Breyer, author of the dissent
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