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This excerpt taken from the SYT 20-F filed Mar 1, 2006. Bt 11 Patent Case In July 2002 Syngenta filed a lawsuit in federal court in Delaware in which Syngenta Seeds, Inc. charges that Monsanto, DeKalb Genetics, Pioneer Hi-Bred,
Dow AgroSciences and Mycogen Seeds are infringing upon one or more of United States Patent No. 6,075,185, United States Patent No. 6,320,100, and United States Patent No. 6,403,865. The products accused of infringement include
YieldGard® MON810 Bt corn and Herculex® Bt corn. These patents
cover synthetic Bt genes with increased expression in corn and corn plants resistant to insects such as the European corn borer that result from expression of such Bt genes; the patent cover includes corn plants with such genes either alone or
stacked with other traits. In an agreement reached on November 29, 2004, Syngenta Seeds, Inc. and Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. settled the claims Syngenta had brought against Pioneer. Trial against defendants Monsanto and Dow/Mycogen
commenced November 29, 2004. Prior to closing arguments, the Court granted defendants’ motion that the ‘100 and ‘185 were not infringed. A jury verdict was returned December 14, 2004 finding the asserted claims of the ‘865 patent
were infringed by YieldGard®, Herculex I® and TC6275 but that those
claims were invalid. Post trial issues relating to inequitable conduct, motions for judgement as a matter of law were tried in 2005. In December 2005, the court denied all “judgement as matter of law” motions and Monsanto’s
inequitable conduct defense. Syngenta’s notice of appeal was filed on January 13, 2006 and defendant’s cross notices of appeal were filed on January 20, 2006.
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