Jury Nullifies Novartis’ Patent on Corn Seed

Novartis, the world’s largest agricultural products company, lost a bid to collect $194 million from Monsanto Co. and DeKalb Genetics Corp. when a jury invalidated the Swiss company’s corn seed patent Monday.

After a two-week trial, a federal jury in Wilmington, Del., also said Novartis failed to prove that Monsanto or DeKalb infringed patent claims. The patent, filed in 1987, was awarded last year.

The verdict was a significant victory for St. Louis-based Monsanto and DeKalb, Ill.-based DeKalb, which claimed that their scientists invented the technology for inserting a particular gene into corn plants to produce a protein that kills corn-eating insects. The market for such bioengineered crops could reach $20 billion in the next decade, analysts say.

Novartis said it plans to appeal.

It’s now questionable whether either Monsanto or Novartis has an exclusive legal claim on the pest-resistant corn since juries have invalidated patents of both companies.