Currently if a GMO corn crop is planted across the road from a conventional corn farm and pollen drifts across the road, the holder of the GMO patent becomes the owner of the intended-but-not-conventional crop because it “makes use of” the GMO intellectual property (genetic sequencing). This has been determined by the courts even if the conventional crop grower did not know his crops were contaminated with GMO pollen and did not want his or her crop to be genetically crossed with the GMO crop.
The new policy should be that whenever GMO pollen drifts into another farmer’s field, the genetic material is deemed to have been released into the public domain and all patents related to it become null and void. Furthermore, the owner of the GMO patent must pay damages to the conventional farmer equal to the value of the crop if it had been grown to harvest without being contaminated by GMO genetic material. The crop becomes the property of the GMO patent holder after they’ve paid in full. The GMO patent holder must also pay attorney fees and crop testing costs incurred by the conventional farmer.