US court revives Bayer case against Monsanto
Date: 01-Mar-04
Country: USA
Author: Carey Gillam
The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington D.C. overturned a lower court's issuance of a summary judgment in favor of Monsanto, saying the issues needed to be decided through a trial of the facts.
The four-year-old dispute between St. Louis, Missouri-based Monsanto and the unit of Bayer AG (BAYG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) of Germany involves four key patents and whether or not Monsanto has infringed on those patents.
Bayer officials heralded the news Tuesday and said they hope to ultimately force Monsanto to pay royalties based on both past and future sales of its Bt corn.
"In essence the court really reversed all of the decisions of the district court below and found entirely in favor of Bayer," said Philippe Dumont, head of technology management for Bayer. "We have a high feeling of vindication."
But Monsanto spokesman Bryan Hurley said the setback was minor.
"The court only decided that there are matters of fact that couldn't be decided on summary judgment, and while we're disappointed ... we're poised and ready to go to trial rapidly to obtain a final ruling that the patents are invalid," Hurley said.
The case involves four patents covering technology that alters plant DNA in a way that makes the plant engineer a bacterium that is toxic to insects. The technology was developed and patented by a predecessor to Bayer, but Monsanto has used similar methods in developing its popular biotech Bt corn product.
Bayer BioScience is a business group of Bayer CropScience AG based in Monheim, Germany, which is a unit of Bayer AG (BAYG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) .
The ruling by the appellate court comes nearly six months after Monsanto and Bayer resolved several other patent disputes through cross-licensing agreements.
It also follows the news in December that Bayer received an exclusive license for agrobacterium-transformation technology after a 20-year battle with Monsanto.
