Cite as: 534 U. S. 124 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
Justice Thomas delivered the opinion of the Court. This case presents the question whether utility patents may be issued for plants under 35 U. S. C. § 101 (1994 ed.), or whether the Plant Variety Protection Act, 84 Stat. 1542, as amended, 7 U. S. C. § 2321 et seq., and the Plant Patent Act of 1930, 35 U. S. C. §§ 161-164 (1994 ed. and Supp. V), are the exclusive means of obtaining a federal statutory right to exclude others from reproducing, selling, or using plants or plant varieties. We hold that utility patents may be issued for plants.
I
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has issued some 1,800 utility patents for plants, plant parts, and seeds pursuant to 35 U. S. C. § 101. Seventeen of these patents are held by respondent Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. (Pioneer). Pioneer's patents cover the manufacture, use, sale, and offer for sale of the company's inbred and hybrid corn seed products. A patent for an inbred corn line protects both the seeds and plants of the inbred line and the hybrids produced by crossing the protected inbred line with another corn line. See, e. g., U. S. Patent No. 5,506,367, col. 3, App. 42. A hybrid plant patent protects the plant, its seeds, variants, mutants, and trivial modifications of the hybrid. See U. S. Patent No. 5,491,295, cols. 2-3, id., at 29-30.
Pedigree inbred corn plants are developed by crossing corn plants with desirable characteristics and then inbreeding the resulting plants for several generations until the resulting plant line is homogenous. Inbreds are often weak
shan, Marinn F. Carlson, and Stephan E. Lawton; for Cargill, Inc., by Frank P. Porcelli, Michael E. Florey, Richard J. Anderson, Jonathan E. Singer, John A. Dragseth, Timothy S. Bishop, and Thomas B. Nachbar; for the Delta and Pine Land Co. by Shawn N. Sullivan; for the Monsanto Co. by Richard L. Stanley; and for the Washington Legal Foundation et al. by Daniel J. Popeo and R. Shawn Gunnarson.
Thomas E. Friebel filed a brief for BASF Corp. as amicus curiae.
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