Monsanto, Syngenta agbio/environmental news

MON said it expanded a breach-of-contract lawsuit against SYNN in the Circuit Court of St. Louis County, Missouri. The suit seeks damages and termination of a Roundup Ready soybean license that MON granted to Ciba-Geigy Corp., which later was acquired by SYNN. MON said the original suit had asked that the court determine that SYNN is limited by its license to commercializing Roundup Ready soybeans under one product brand.

Separately, SYNN said its U.S. subsidiary, Syngenta Seeds Inc., had filed an antitrust suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, citing MON's "monopolization of biotechnology corn seed in the U.S." The two companies are involved in ongoing patent infringement litigation brought by MON in the Delaware court related to glyphosate-tolerant plants. In addition, MON subsidiary DeKalb Genetics Corp. initiated a patent infringement suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois claiming that SYNN infringes MON's patents covering Roundup Ready glyphosate-tolerant corn. ...