1. they kind of implied that the seed companies build in a "security lock" on hybrid plants. Hybrid progeny have wildly different/non-uniform offspring because that is just the way genetics work. You have two pools of inbred (100% or near homozygous) plants, you cross pollinate them and they have very uniform results because they have pretty uniform genetics and have "hybrid vigor". The next generation (what the farmer harvests) has likely been open air pollinated has a garbled mess of genetics and will therefore underperform if planted. Enough so that it isn't worth trying to re-plant instead of buying new seed. It depends of the species however, Corn is like this, but soybeans are a self pollinating plant so hybrid soybeans aren't really a thing.

2. Not all plants are patent-able, only ones that reproduce asexually. Monansto/DuPont don't patent varieties of corn or soybeans as they don't reproduce asexually, but they DO patent gene insertions (aka BioTech Traits, or BT traits). Getting a gene that kills rootworm or has glyphosate (roundup) resistance is mind bogglingly expensive. When a variety has multiple traits inserted you'll hear it called "a stack". These high cost, high benefit efforts are precisely the kinds of things we would want to be patent-able to encourage companies to invest the huge amount of resources.