July 1, 1996
SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- The California Supreme Court has denied Monsanto Company�s petition to review an April 1996 Court of Appeal ruling affirming that Mycogen Corporation�s Mycogen Plant Science, Inc. subsidiary is entitled to exercise options to license certain Monsanto herbicide tolerance and insect resistance technology for plants.
The options give Mycogen (Nasdaq: MYCO) the right to license Monsanto�s Roundup Ready� herbicide tolerance technology for corn, cotton and oilseed rape and Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) insect-resistance gene technology for corn on �terms as favorable as any other third party licensee.�
Monsanto granted the options in 1989 to Lubrizol Genetics, Inc., an entity in which Mycogen acquired a controlling interest in 1992. When Mycogen sought to exercise the options in 1993, Monsanto refused and Mycogen filed suit in Superior Court. In 1994, that court ruled in Monsanto�s favor and Mycogen appealed. The Court of Appeal reversed that ruling and directed summary judgment in Mycogen�s favor on April 2.
�These options are valuable assets that Mycogen should have been able to use for the past three years to develop products and build our business,� said Jerry Caulder, Mycogen�s chairman and chief executive officer.
On May 8, 1996, Mycogen filed suit in Superior Court in San Diego, seeking actual and punitive damages from Monsanto for breach of contract and interference with Mycogen�s seed business as a result of Monsanto�s refusal to honor the options.
Mycogen is a diversified agricultural biotechnology company that develops and markets technology-based products and provides crop protection services to control agricultural pests and improve food and fiber production. Mycogen Seeds develops and markets planting seeds for improved crop varieties with genetically enhanced insect-resistance and other value-added characteristics. Mycogen Crop Protection develops and markets environmentally compatible biopesticides and provides crop protection services to growers of high value crops in California and Arizona.
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