Monsanto Pleased with Federal Court Ruling
January 26, 2010 Monsanto Company welcomed the St. Louis Federal Court’s ruling that DuPont was not licensed to combine the Roundup Ready trait with the Optimum GAT (OGAT) trait in corn or soybeans. The ruling means that DuPont is not authorized to use the Roundup Ready trait to mask the “unacceptable risks to farmers” posed by DuPont’s OGAT trait.
“The Court ruled that the Monsanto-DuPont license agreements ‘are unambiguous and do not grant Pioneer the right to stack’ the Roundup Ready trait with the Optimum GAT trait,” said Scott Partridge, chief deputy general counsel for Monsanto.
“DuPont negotiated and signed a contract with a specific set of rights, at the financial terms they preferred, and the rights did not include making this stacked combination. This was DuPont’s business decision.”
“The court record further highlights that DuPont was authorized to create any stacked trait product with our Roundup Ready technology other than one such as OGAT, a conscious business decision that they made at the time the contract was negotiated and signed,” said Partridge. “DuPont has always had the rights to create a stacked product such as Roundup Ready with its Plenish High Oleic soybean oil product, or adding a second herbicide tolerance mode like its proprietary ALS-herbicide-tolerance combined with Roundup Ready.”
“Importantly, the court’s ruling follows well-established patent and contract law by recognizing the rights of the technology developer and reinforcing that contractual rights should be respected,” said Partridge. “Now that the fundamental issue in this case has been decided, we look forward to rapidly concluding the balance of this litigation.”
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