Blog - Page 11 of 19 - Agricultural Legal Counsel

Legal News

Forum Shopping Gets a Boost, and Other Legal News

Supreme Court Confirms Power of State Courts Over Corporate Defendants This week the Supreme Court ruled that companies can be hailed into court in states where the companies have registered to do business. The ruling is significant because it will give plaintiffs a wide choice of venues for filing suits against corporate defendants. Since the 19th century, nearly every state has adopted laws that require out-of-state companies seeking to do business within the state to register and appoint an agent for service of process. Thus, companies routinely register in many states. The case before the Supreme Court involved a suit by a former employee that had worked for Norfolk Southern

joelcape June 30, 2023

Lawsuits

New Lawsuit to De-List Enlist, Cell-Cultured Chicken Approved for Dinner

New Lawsuit Challenges Registrations for Enlist One and Enlist Duo Environmental groups continued their fight against EPA’s registration of Enlist and Enlist Duo herbicides by filing a new lawsuit seeking to vacate those registrations. The Groups’ 100-page complaint alleges that EPA’s decisions violate the Federal Insectide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by failing to account for risks and adverse effects, including: understating the risks of spray drift, damage to non-tolerant crops, increases in herbicide resistance, and impacts to wildlife areas overstating the benefits of Enlist in combating herbicide-resistance weeds ignoring the human health risks of Enlist Duo, including the connection of its glyphosate component

joelcape June 27, 2023

Legal News

EPA’s Regulatory Bias on Biotechnology, and Other Legal News

EPA’s New Final Rule for Traited Crops Looks Much Like the Old Rule The EPA recently released its final rule for new regulations on Plant-Incorporated Protectants (PIPs) which are commonly known as pesticidal traits in plants. The new rule adds a narrow exemption for a small subset of PIPs created through new biotechnology techniques, such as gene editing. The new exemptions will apply to two types of genetically engineered PIPs: Those created through genetic engineering from a sexually compatible plant, for example, the introduction of a gene from a wild maize relative into a modern corn variety; and Those where the genetic modification results in a loss of function of

joelcape June 16, 2023

Agriculture

Treated Seed Under Fire (Again), New Dicamba Resistance

Treated Seed Exemption Under Fire (Again) A coalition of environmental groups has filed a lawsuit against EPA in a running legal fight to eliminate treated seed from an exemption under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). The EPA does not require registration of treated seed under FIFRA’s “treated articles” exemption. The environmental groups petitioned EPA in 2017 asking the agency to regulate treated seed, taking particular aim at neonicotinoid treatments. When the agency failed to act, the environmental groups filed suit to force EPA to make a decision on their petition. Last fall, the EPA denied the groups’ petition. The new lawsuit is the next step to challenge the Agency’s decision to

joelcape June 12, 2023

Legal News

Broad Disclosures Required for Broad Patent Monopolies and More

Supreme Court Pulls the Reins on Broad Patent Claims Broad claims for patented inventions were recently reined in by the Supreme Court in a long-running patent infringement dispute between two pharmaceutical companies, Amgen Inc. and Sanofi. The decision turned on the legal requirement that patents must “enable” someone skilled in the art to make and use the invention (the “enablement” requirement). Underlying this requirement is the foundational “patent bargain” principle that in exchange for a limited monopoly on the invention, the patent must publicly disclose the invention in “full, clear, concise, and exact terms.” At issue in the case were two patents by Amgen that broadly claimed all antibodies that

joelcape June 2, 2023

Agriculture

A Court Defines Butter, Farming From Space | Cape Law Firm

I Can’t Believe Anyone Thought It Was Butter! There is no shortage of quirky litigation over food claims. A recent example comes from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals which weighed in on the definition of butter in a consumer class action against Unilever regarding its product, “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! Spray.” Plaintiffs claimed that the nutritional labeling for “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! Spray” (referred to as “Butter! Spray”) was misleading because it was based on artificially low serving sizes – it was labeled as having zero calories and zero grams of fat per serving. Plaintiffs alleged that the serving size should be based on a serving

joelcape May 19, 2023