The Wheat and the (GM) Tares: Lessons for Plant Patent Litigation from the Parables of Christ

Abstract

A parable is a short story, generally used in the Bible to illustrate a moral or religious lesson. Many parables contain not only spiritual truths but also universal precepts for living, and for law. In fact, legal commentators have used Christ’s agrarian parables to shed light on issues as diverse as environmental ethics, capital punishment, dispute resolution, and professionalism. This Essay, written for a symposium on Intellectual Property and Religious Thought, adds plant patenting disputes to that list. In particular, it provides comparisons between the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares and issues surrounding the contamination of crops by GM species; the Parable of the Growing Seed and broad inventorship and exclusionary rights over self-replicating organisms; and the Parable of the Sower and the Seed and the insertion of genes from foreign species into seeds. Insights from these comparisons should provide food for thought for interested parties, jurists, and policymakers addressing issues involving patents on self-replicating plants.