DuPont files lawsuit against Monsanto

Mar 16, 2015

Dispute is over royalties for soybean technology

It’s like Goliath vs. Goliath in a Delaware courtroom as agricultural product giants DuPont and Monsanto are at odds over royalties for soybean technology.

The technology royalties being disputed over is called Biolistic. It’s a manner of introducing nucleic acid into plants with gold particles covered with DNA using a “gene gun”.

DuPont’s lawsuit looks to seek payment from a 2012 arbitration panel. DuPont says Monsanto paid two royalty installments equalling about $33 million, and since then made no other royalty payments.

"Monsanto has failed, and despite, repeated demands, refused to satisfy its royalty obligation in accordance with the panel's final award and the biolistic agreement," wrote DuPont attorney Peter J. Walsh Jr. of Potter Anderson & Corroon as reported by the News Journal. "Accordingly, DuPont seeks by this action to enforce the Final Award and the terms of the Biolistic agreement, and to obtain such other relief as is appropriate."

Sarah Miller, a Monsanto spokeswoman responded to the News Journal in an email saying they are confused by why DuPont would sue over royalties “less than $7 million” and over something that’s been dormant for two years.

The two companies began their agreement for the Biolistic technology in December of 1992 and the relationship started to deteriorate somewhere in 2008 when Monsanto said they didn’t owe any more money because some of DuPont’s patents for the gene gun ended in 2007.

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