Comment by Androsynth

I always thought a good compromise would be that you can sell genetically modified seeds (or eggs or whatever) but you shouldnt be able to own anything that is produced by those seeds. ie children, saplings etc

in other words, you own the process of genetically modifying an organism, not the genes.

I dont know how realistic or unrealistic this is, since ianal.

edit: someone else mentioned the monsanto ruling, which makes this idea sound unrealistic