Justice Department flags seed patents as competition concern

The Justice Department has told a federal court that seed patents can block agricultural research and competition, adding antitrust weight to a long-running fight over who controls the genetics behind major U.S. crops. The filing matters because farmers buy seed in markets the Department of Agriculture says are dominated by a few companies.

In a May 2026 statement of interest, the Justice Department said patents on seeds are interfering with competition and research in the agriculture industry. The filing came in a dispute between Corteva, a multinational agrochemical company, and Inari, a genetic engineering startup.

The USDA’s Economic Research Service has found that two companies account for more than 70% of U.S. corn and soybean seed sales. The agency also found that the four largest cottonseed companies control nearly 94% of that market.

Patent rights and market power

The United States is among a small group of countries that allows companies to patent plant varieties, according to Lens, a patent information service. University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers Julie Dawson, Kiki Hubbard and Paulina Jenney wrote in The Conversation that those rights have helped large seed companies limit rivals and discourage research by smaller firms and public breeders.

The researchers said seed ownership changed sharply after courts and governments began allowing patents on living organisms, including engineered traits in crops such as corn, soybeans, cotton and canola. Companies then used patent rights and licensing contracts to restrict breeding with patented seed and to bar farmers from saving seed for later planting, they wrote.

USDA data show the cost of genetically engineered seed has risen far faster than crop prices. The Economic Research Service reported that genetically engineered seed prices have increased 463% since 1990, while prices farmers received for crops rose 56% over the same period.

Subsidies and seed prices

Federal farm programs pay farmers when crop prices fall below certain levels or when weather and trade disruptions cause losses, according to the USDA’s Farm Service Agency. But Dawson, Hubbard and Jenney argued that some of that support can flow through farmers to companies that sell seed or buy grain.

An August 2025 study found that seed companies raise prices when farm subsidies increase. The study reported that for every 1% rise in subsidies, seed prices increase by 0.5%.

At an October 2025 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on seed and fertilizer competition, Iowa farmer Noah Coppess said farmers often lack power over the prices they receive and the costs they pay. He told senators that consolidation limits farmers’ options and raised concern that input and equipment suppliers can influence costs.

Research access at issue

The Corteva-Inari case centers partly on whether analyzing patented seed obtained from a public repository can amount to infringement. Corteva sued Inari in 2023, alleging patent violations that included obtaining samples of Corteva’s patented seeds and studying their genetic makeup.

The Justice Department did not ask the court to favor either company. It said, however, that companies should not be allowed to stop the public from sequencing genetic material deposited as part of the patent process.

The filing came from the department’s Antitrust Division, rather than the Civil Division, which usually handles intellectual property matters. Dawson, Hubbard and Jenney wrote that this signals the government may view some uses of seed patents as a competition problem.

The case remains pending. If the court accepts the Justice Department’s view, researchers and competitors could gain more room to study patented crop genetics, a step the Wisconsin researchers say could expose weaknesses in widely planted varieties and add pressure on seed prices.

This story draws on original reporting from Ars Technica.