* Soybean farmer accused of infringing Monsanto patents
* Supreme Court accepts seven new cases for review
Oct 5 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Friday toconsider an Indiana soybean farmer's appeal of a decisionfinding that he infringed Monsanto Co patents over seedscontaining the company's genetically altered Roundup Readytechnology.
The case is one of seven that the highest U.S. court agreedto hear on Friday, with oral arguments likely to be scheduledfor January or February of 2013.
In the Monsanto case, Vernon Bowman, who is in his mid-70s,was appealing a September 2011 decision by the U.S. FederalCircuit Court of Appeals upholding an $84,456 damages award forMonsanto.
The company had claimed that Bowman was growing moresoybeans than his seed purchases could generate.
Bowman countered that he had bought the seeds as part of anundifferentiated mix of "commodity" seeds, and that farmers haveused such seeds for planting, and created so-called "secondgeneration" seeds, for decades.
In his appeal, Bowman said the Federal Circuit erred infinding that his use of the seeds for a natural and foreseeablepurpose - planting - created new seeds that infringed Monsanto'srights. He said earlier court decisions suggested that Monsantohad no rights after it made an initial sale.
(Reporting By Terry Baynes and Jonathan Stempel in New York;editing by Christopher Wilson)
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