Tagged: Monsanto

DuPont’s Pioneer Hi-Bred International is suing Monsanto for allegedly violating DuPont patents related to corn seed production.

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court, the Iowa-based seed company accuses Monsanto of using a patented technique developed by DuPont to enhance corn seed germination. The technique involves defoliating the corn plants with herbicides between pollination and harvest.

DuPont alleges that Monsanto has been using this defoliation technique at its research site in Constantine, Michigan.

Building on the success and popularity of Pepsi Refresh and similar programs, Monsanto has launched its own competitive grants for St. Louis-area non-profits.

"We're asking St. Louis to nominate, and subsequently to vote on their favorite schools, their favorite agencies, their favorite non-profits," said Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant at Tuesday's announcement of the Grow St. Louis program. "They'll have the opportunity through that voting system to win a grant. It's kind of like American Idol without the music."

Updated 2:05 p.m. April 12, 2011:

Reuters has now updated its story to indicate that a buyout is not in the plans:

Germany's BASF SE (BASFn.DE) has no plans to buy global biotech seed company Monsanto Co (MON.N), sources with knowledge of the situation said on Tuesday.

Rumors that a buyout was imminent sent shares of Monsanto Co (MON.N) up as much as 4 percent while shares of BASF, the world's largest chemical maker, fell 2.8 percent to 62.59 euros.