SCOTUS rejects Dow’s $455m appeal against Bayer
The US Supreme Court has refused to rule on a patent dispute between agricultural companies Dow AgroSciences and Bayer CropScience.
Yesterday, December 4, the court denied Dow’s petition for certiorari, leaving a decision made by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in March untouched.
Dow had asked the Supreme Court to review the decision, which affirmed a $455 million award in damages for Bayer for Dow’s infringement of patents related to genetically engineered soybeans.
In 2012, Dow was accused of infringing US patent numbers 5,561,236; 5,646,024; 5,648,477; and 7,112,665.
The patents are called “Genetically engineered plant cells and plants exhibiting resistance to glutamine synthetase inhibitors, DNA fragments and recombinants for use in the production of said cells and plants”.
An international arbitration tribunal had awarded Bayer approximately $455 million, including damages for breach of contract and patent infringement.
The tribunal had issued the decision on a contract claim under French law and patent infringement claims under US laws.
The US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia upheld the tribunal’s decision, so Dow appealed to the Federal Circuit.
In March, the Federal Circuit partially affirmed the lower court’s ruling, concluding that the district court correctly confirmed the award, “but abused its discretion regarding post-judgment interest”.
Dow, in its petition for certiorari, argued that the Federal Circuit had precluded a mandatory second review of whether the award violated public policy.
The agricultural company said: “International arbitration of federal statutory claims poses a threat to US public policy that can be mitigated only by independent judicial review.”
Additionally, Dow stated that the decision to uphold the award was based on “duplicative and expired patent rights”, the enforcement of which violates public policy that patent monopolies may last for a limited time.
Did you enjoy reading this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.
