The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected a Delta man’s patent claims for a yellow bean that is a Latin American food staple.
The patent office canceled patent 5,893,079, which was issued to Larry M. Proctor in November 1996. Proctor is a bean and pea processor and wholesaler with annual sales of $1 million to $10 million, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. His venture with the new bean was called Pod-ners.
Proctor claimed proprietary rights to a bean derived from a package of dried beans he bought in Mexico in 1994 and brought to the U.S. After the third harvest of the progeny, Proctor filed a patent application, claiming “a new field bean variety that produces distinctly colored yellow seed, which remain relatively unchanged by season.” He called it an “enola” bean.
The International Center for Tropical Agriculture disputed Proctor’s claims that he’d created a new variety and challenged the patent.
The center, based in Cali, Colombia, is a partnership of countries, international and regional organizations and private foundations supporting the work of 15 international agricultural research centers.
The challenge included evidence of 360 different yellow beans of the same species within the center’s crop-gene bank and argued that the Mexican government released a version of the bean to the public in the 1970s and that Proctor didn’t have an export permit when he brought the beans to the U.S.
The Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences decided that the bean was “anticipated” by a common Mexican yellow bean and denied all claims in an April 29 decision.
“For several years now, farmers in Mexico, the USA and elsewhere have unnecessarily endured legal threats and intimidation for simply planting, selling or exporting a bean that they have been growing for generations,” Geoffrey Hawtin, the center’s director general, said in a statement.
After the patent was issued, Proctor claimed 6 cents royalty on every pound of yellow beans sold in the U.S., according to the center’s statement.
Proctor was represented by David J. Lee from Lathrop & Gage of Kansas City, Mo. Proctor referred questions to his attorney, and Lee didn’t return an e-mailed request for comment.
The case is ex parte Pod-Ners LLC, 2007-3938, Before the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
