Bayer settles fungicide trade secrets claims
Bayer has dropped trade secrets claims against a former employee and rival company, which it had accused of stealing confidential information related to organic fungicides.
According to court documents filed earlier this week, the case against Shaohua Guan and Texas company Tenfold Technologies has been dismissed following a settlement.
Bayer’s agriculture division, Bayer CropScience, sued Guan in May this year. According to the Germany-based company, whose product line includes pesticides and fertilisers, Guan’s employment at Bayer was terminated in 2013.
Upon leaving the company, Guan signed an agreement pledging not to file any patent applications for technology partly created during his employment at Bayer.
After leaving the company, Guan started work as a senior scientist at Tencent Technologies, commonly-known as Agricen Sciences.
In March last year, Agricen filed an international patent application covering “Methods and Agricultural Compositions for Preventing or Controlling Plant Diseases” (WO 2018/183381 A1).
The ‘381 patent covers bacterial compositions for agricultural use and media for growing the bacteria.
According to Bayer, the patent includes proprietary formulations that are trade secrets relating to its Serenade fungicide brand.
Bayer said that Guan had access to these materials while employed at the company, as corroborated by both the company’s and Guan’s notebooks, which Bayer said contained the same formulations as claimed by the ‘381 patent.
The case has now been settled, with all parties agreeing to dismiss the case with prejudice.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
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