Monsanto suffers patent loss in India
Agriculture company Monsanto suffered a loss in India yesterday when the High Court of Delhi concluded that the company’s patent on genetically modified cotton seeds is not valid.
The High Court backed Indian agribusiness Nuziveedu (the plaintiff) in its dispute, which included a patent opposition, with Monsanto.
Monsanto is the owner of Indian patent number 214436, which covers “Methods for transforming plants to express bacillus thuringiensis deltaendotoxins”.
The US company argued that the biotech invention contains “the infusion of Bt gene into the cotton genome”, which eradicates pests afflicting cotton plants, and that components in the invention fall under microbiological processes and microorganisms, making it patentable.
However, Nuziveedu argued that Monsanto’s invention only included the “nucleic acid sequence” and the process to insert the sequence in plant cells.
“Under the Indian regulatory regime, a plant or seed which has such a nucleic acid sequence containing the Cry2Ab gene cannot be granted a patent in India and is an excluded matter,” said Nuziveedu, adding that section 3(j) of the Patents Act prohibits a patent for plants, including seeds and varieties.
Nuziveedu and its subsidiaries currently possess approvals for nearly 30% of all cotton hybrids approved by the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee, a regulatory body in India.
The High Court found that the invention falls within section 3(j), so is unpatentable, noting that transgenic plants and seeds spread after hybridisation cannot be protected.
The court added that the Bt trait on its is own is not useful and that its only utility occurs when it’s introduced into the DNA sequence of the seed.
It added that the transfer of the Bt trait into plants and the consequent transgenic seeds will be a process of nature and “no step of human intervention can impede such transfer of the sequence”, so that it would be contrary to law and Parliamentary intent to allow a patent for the nucleic sequence once it has been hybridised.
Monsanto had also brought a claim for damages relating to a sub-licence between the US company and Nuziveedu. The court allowed this claim to proceed.
In March last year, the High Court of Delhi ordered Monsanto to continue a licensing agreement that had been terminated. This was upheld in the current decision.
In 2004, a joint venture between Monsanto and agricultural business Mahyco—called Mahyco Monsanto Biotech—entered into a ten-year agreement with Nuziveedu, providing it with 50 grammes of cotton seeds. Further licensing deals followed, before expiring in 2015.
Monsanto had claimed that Nuziveedu had continued to use its technology after the joint venture had terminated the licensing deal.
Did you enjoy reading this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories sent like this straight to your inbox.
Join us at LSPN North America on April 26, find out more here.
