Monsanto Wins Initial Battle With DuPont

A St. Louis federal court has ruled that contracts give Monsanto (NYSE: MON) the right to make its competitor DuPont (NYSE: DD) stop selling genetically modified soybeans developed using Monsanto technology. However, it's too early for Monsanto to claim victory. The ruling leaves open DuPont's challenge of the same restrictions on antitrust grounds.

U.S. District Judge Richard Webber said that although Monsanto's licensing agreement denies DuPont the right to insert its Optimum GAT gene into corn and soybean plants with Monsanto traits, he has not yet considered whether Monsanto is under violation of antitrust laws because it restricts how competitors breed and sell plants with Monsanto traits.

Monsanto filed a lawsuit against DuPont that claimed that it was illegal for DuPont to sell a new line of biotech seeds that added a new DuPont gene to an older line of Monsanto's Roundup Ready corn and soybean plants that DuPont had developed under a license with Monsanto.

DuPont is challenging the license agreement, claiming that it violates antitrust law. The challenge comes at a time when Monsanto is already the subject of an antitrust investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.

"This litigation is just beginning; we will now vigorously pursue our antitrust, license and patent fraud claims," DuPont Senior Vice President and General Counsel Thomas L. Sager said in a statement Saturday.