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Monsanto and Pilot Grove Coop reach settlement of a two-year dispute involving patent infringement

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St. Louis, Missouri
September 2, 2008

Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON) and Pilot Grove Cooperative Elevator, Inc. announced the settlement of a two-year dispute involving patent infringement. Pilot Grove acknowledged violating Monsanto's patented Roundup Ready seed technology and accepted responsibility for damages.

Compensation due under the terms of the settlement from Pilot Grove Coop will remain in the surrounding community to fund scholarships for local, college- bound FFA and 4-H youth. Pilot Grove Coop will also develop and adopt a stewardship policy to avoid future patent infringement and assure sound product stewardship, and will work with a third-party organization to provide training for employees.

"We pursue these cases for a number of important reasons," states Scott Baucum, Monsanto's Director of U.S. Commercial Trait Stewardship. "First, we owe it to the hundreds of thousands of Monsanto farmer customers who are abiding by their contracts to assure a level playing field, and that some farmers don't have an unfair advantage. Also, while it's important to Monsanto to protect our investment, it is extremely important to the entire agricultural community that we are able to continue to reinvest in new and better seed technology. For every $10 a farmer spends on seed, Monsanto invests $1 in research and development."

"We are glad to have been able to resolve this issue professionally and in a way that demonstrates the commitment of both Monsanto and Pilot Grove Coop to agriculture and this community in a way that minimizes the impact to those farmer-members who were not involved. We are also glad to be able to offer seed with traits and to continue to do business with Monsanto," said Earl Haller of Pilot Grove Coop.

It is relatively rare that Monsanto sues over saved seed. With approximately 250,000 customers in any given year, it is only a small fraction that saves seed containing patented traits and when they do it is largely only related to soybeans. In most of these situations, we are able to reach a mutually agreeable settlement without filing suit. During the past 10 years the vast majority of seed patent infringement claims were settled without the need for any legal action. Monsanto filed suit against farmers for seed patent infringement approximately 125 times. Of those 125 lawsuits, all but eight (8) were successfully settled without the need for a trial; Monsanto proceeded through trial in the remaining eight, and won each case.

Monsanto Company is a leading global provider of technology-based solutions and agricultural products that improve farm productivity and food quality.
Monsanto remains focused on enabling both small-holder and large-scale farmers to produce more from their land while conserving more of our world's natural resources such as water and energy.

 

 

 

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