Supreme Court decides Quanta

The Supreme Court just handed down its decision in Quanta Computer Inc. v. LG Electronics Inc., 06-937. The Court ruled 9-0 in favor of Quanta ruling that method patents are subject to exhaustion, and that the patents had been exhausted in this case. The opinion is here. It will be interesting to see how this decision plays out in the agbiotech context. Croplife International, BIO and the American Seed Trade Associations all filed amicus briefs urging the court to decide the case in a fashion that did not raise questions about the licensing agreements used in the agbiotech context. Given the Court's fairly sweeping language and unanimous opinion, I imagine there are some very anxious patent holders in agbiotech land this afternoon.