November 25, 2005

Monsanto wins GM corn patent case against Bayer

Monsanto has won a case involving a GM corn patent infringement brought about by Bayer CropScience, the former announced on Nov 22.

The jury assigned to the case decided that Monsanto did not infringe the US patent belonging to Bayer as the Bayer patent was invalid.

Monsanto first introduced an insect-protected corn to the marketplace in the form of YieldGard Corn Borer in 1997. However, Bayer alleged in 2000 that the technology used in the YieldGard Corn Borer infringed four of their patents, but later challenged Monsanto on just one of them.

The jury's decision came after a three-week trial and confirmed that Monsanto's scientists invented the technology used in its YieldGard Corn Borer product. Monsanto added to the corn a protein from Bacillus thuringiensis, a common soil microbe, to give it resistance against the European corn borer pest.