Monsanto, DuPont End Multi-Billion Dollar Legal Battle
1 April 2013 
Two of the world’s largest seed and chemical companies, Monsanto and DuPont, have agreed to drop their respective $10 billion antitrust and soybean technology patent lawsuits. The companies chose, instead, mutually beneficial licensing agreements on the genetically modified seeds.
In August of 2012, DuPont was court ordered to pay $1 billion in royalty fees for using Monsanto and a subsidiary’s Optimum GAT seed trait in their stacking technologies. This week’s settlement, however, dismissed the previously ordered payment owed to Monsanto. Instead, DuPont will be required to make at least $1.75 billion in royalty payments through 2023 to license Monsanto’s seed technologies.
The benefit to DuPont, however, is the new ability for the company’s Pioneer agricultural seeds division to develop products using Monsanto’s existing and future genetic technology.
Monsanto’s portfolio will also benefit from the agreement, apart from the payouts, as they will receive access to some of DuPont Pioneer’s disease resistance and corn defoliation patents.
According to Reuters, DuPont President Paul Schickler commented on the ruling, saying, “This is a smart deal for DuPont. We’ve got access to two additional technologies that we can now combine with our existing technologies as well as the technologies in our pipeline.”
Monsanto’s Vice President, Scott Partridge, agreed, telling Reuters, “We’re very pleased to have them as a customer. Ending these legal disputes opens the door to a more rational way to compete.”
DuPont Pioneer will offer Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans as early as next year and Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Xtend glyphosate and dicamba tolerant soybeans as early as 2015 depending on regulatory approvals.
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