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Biotech / Medical : Monsanto Co. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dan Spillane who wrote (2132)	6/4/1999 8:19:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2539

French company tries to block Monsanto from selling corn By Robert Steyer Of The Post-Dispatch Posted: Friday, June 4, 1999 \| 3:43 a.m. On the heels of winning two patent lawsuits against Monsanto Co., a French life sciences company said Thursday that it will try to block the sale of a Monsanto gene-altered corn. Rhone-Poulenc said it would soon seek an injunction against the sale of a type of corn that tolerates Monsanto's Roundup herbicide. The injunction would only affect "Roundup Ready" corn made by Monsanto's DeKalb Genetics subsidiary. Monsanto licenses its Roundup-tolerant corn to many seed companies. On Wednesday, a federal court jury supported Rhone-Poulenc's contention that DeKalb had infringed on a patent used in the development of Roundup Ready corn. The jury also said DeKalb had misappropriated trade secrets owned by the French company's farm products subsidiary, Rhone-Poulenc Agro. The jury, sitting in Greensboro, N.C., declined to add punitive damages to the $65 million awarded in April by another federal jury. The first jury said DeKalb had improperly used Rhone-Poulenc's genetic material in creating some corn varieties. Both suits were filed when DeKalb was independent; Monsanto took control last year. Monsanto will ask the trial judges in both cases to set aside the verdicts. If they don't, Monsanto will appeal the decisions. Randy Krotz, a Monsanto spokesman, said the verdicts won't affect the selling of Roundup Ready corn because Monsanto licenses its technology to many companies. Within two years, Monsanto expects to sell new varieties of Roundup Ready corn that don't contain Rhone-Poulenc technology. Rick Rountree, a Rhone-Poulenc spokesman, said the court rulings mean that if Monsanto wants to sell DeKalb-produced Roundup Ready corn, it must pay a fee. "The jury upheld our patent and that means you've got to have a licensing agreement," he said. "We no longer have a licensing agreement with DeKalb." stlnet.com