Monsanto and DuPont Fight in the Weeds over Crop Biotech Patent
By Andrew Longstreth
May 06, 2009
Who knew that the business of crops could be so nasty? On Monday, big seed company Monsanto filed a patent infringement suit in St. Louis federal district court against E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company and its subsidiary Pioneer Hi-Bred International over the allegedly unlawful use of Monsanto's Roundup Ready herbicide-tolerant technologies in a new Pioneer line of genetically modified soybean and corn seeds. Here's Monsanto's complaint and here's a Wall Street Journal article about the suit.Monsanto followed up with some trash-talk in a press release on Tuesday. "As the saying goes, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant said in the statement. "However, unlawfully taking technology is neither imitation nor flattery; it is unethical and wrong. A true technology company respects patents and its contractual agreements and delivers new products through its own innovation and honest collaboration. DuPont has failed on all counts."
DuPont, what do you have to say for yourself? "The litigation filed today by Monsanto is more of what we have come to expect from them," said DuPont group vice president James Borel in a statement accusing its rival of anticompetitive behavior. "Monsanto has a long history of using litigation and aggressive tactics to preserve their monopoly and attempt to intimidate customers, seed partners, and competitors."
Monsanto has loaded up on law firms. Listed on the suit are Kurt Calia of Covington & Burling (which regularly represents Monsanto in IP litigation); Susan Knoll and Steven Spears of McDermott Will & Emery; and Joseph Conran, Omri Praiss, Greg Gutzler, Tamara Spicer, and Steven Berezney of Husch Blackwell Sanders. For a good profile of Husch--including a discussion of its work for Monsanto--check out David Bario's feature on the firm in the May issue of The American Lawyer.
No word yet on who will be defending DuPont.
