Monsanto loses patent and trademark dispute in India
Agriculture company Monsanto has lost a patent and trademark dispute against Indian agribusiness Nuziveedu Seeds.
On Tuesday, March 28, the High Court of Delhi ordered the US company to continue a licensing agreement that had been terminated.
In 2004, a joint venture between Monsanto and agricultural business Mahyco—called Mahyco Monsanto Biotech—entered into a ten-year agreement providing Nuziveedu with 50 grams of cotton seeds.
Further licensing deals followed, expiring in 2015.
The dispute arose in 2015 when Monsanto sued Nuziveedu for patent and trademark infringement.
It claimed that the Indian company had continued to use Monsanto’s technology after the joint venture had ended the licensing deal.
The trademarks which were allegedly infringed were ‘Bollgard’ and ‘Bollgard II’, which cover a number of varieties of cotton bio-engineered to produce an insecticidal protein from Bacillus thuringiensis.
Nuziveedu was also alleged to have infringed patent IA 214436, titled “Methods for transforming plants to express Bacillus thuringiensis Delta-endotoxins”.
According to Monsanto, Nuziveedu had continued to market and sell “genetically modified hybrid cotton planting seeds” after the licence was terminated.
The court ruled that Monsanto should not have cancelled the licence and that it must be restored.
“The parties shall remain bound by their respective obligations under the terms and conditions of the 2015 sub-licence agreements,” said the court.
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