Court Clears Monsanto of Licensing Damages

Monsanto Co. says a California appeals court ruled it is not required to pay Mycogen Corp. $175 million in damages in a licensing dispute over technology for pest-resistant crops. The state Court of Appeals found that jurors improperly awarded the damages to Mycogen, a San Diego-based unit of Dow Chemical Co. that develops, manufactures and markets biopesticides and alternatives to chemical pesticides, Monsanto said in a release. Monsanto is a unit of Peapack, N.J.-based Pharmacia Corp. The decision is another blow to Mycogen, which failed in 1998 to convince a federal court jury in Delaware that it holds a valid patent to the Bacillus thuringiesis (Bt) technology and deserves damages from Monsanto and other seed companies that use it. The California ruling is the latest chapter in continuing litigation over the legal rights to the Bt gene technology, which produces a protein that is deadly to crop-eating insects. The market for the genetically altered crops could reach $20 billion in sales by 2010, analysts say.