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14 November 2019AmericasRory O'Neill

Chinese state-owned chemical firm in fungicide patent suit

A Chinese state-owned chemical firm is suing US crop protection products company Atticus for patent infringement.

ChemChina subsidiary Syngenta Crop Protection says that it owns exclusive patent rights on methods for preparing the fungicide azoxystrobin.

Syngenta says it has spent “significant resources” developing the compound and making it commercially viable.

According to the complaint, filed at the US District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Atticus is responsible for 46% of the imports of azoxystrobin by generic manufacturers in the US.

Atticus imported 266,000 kilos of the chemical during the 2018-19 growing season, the complaint said.

The company developed the compounds into commercial products, which Syngenta claims were manufactured using its patent-protected methods.

Syngenta said it sought an explanation from Atticus of its manufacturing process to prove that its products did not infringe the ChemChina subsidiary’s products.

The Chinese-owned company cited previous litigation against other generic manufacturers such as Willowood in which it successfully asserted its patent rights for azoxystrobin.

In that case, Sygenta secured an injunction barring Willowood from infringing US patent  8,124,761.

Willowood was also ordered to pay nearly $1 million in damages for infringing pesticide sales.

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