EU court upholds decision against Monsantos seed patent claim

Monsanto Co., the worlds biggest seed company, cant use a European patent on its Roundup Ready soybeans to block Argentine soy meal imports, the European Unions highest court said.

The ruling by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg follows Creve Coeur-based Monsantos decision last month to withdraw a Dutch suit that triggered the EU court case. Tuesdays decision is binding across the 27 EU nations and cant be appealed.

"Monsanto cannot prohibit the marketing in the EU of soy meal containing, in a residual state, a DNA sequence" it patented, the EU court said.

Monsanto said last week that its decision to settle the Dutch dispute was prompted by a preliminary opinion in March. The EU court on Tuesday agreed with the nonbinding decision of its Advocate General Paolo Mengozzi that the European patent for the trait that makes soybeans resistant to the companys Roundup herbicide doesnt extend to soy meal made from the patented seeds.

"This is another blow to Monsanto, which is the more painful as it probably thought it was off the hook after having settled the Dutch case," said Stijn Debaene, a partner at Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP in Brussels. "Monsanto cannot invoke its patent rights to enjoin someone from importing or using materials containing residues of Monsantos patented genetic information."

Argentine growers planted about 43 million acres of soybeans containing Monsantos Roundup Ready trait last year, making the country the companys second-biggest soybean market after the U.S., according to a Monsanto report. About 95 percent of soybeans grown in Argentina contain Monsantos Roundup Ready trait, Jim Tobin, the companys vice president of industry affairs, said in July.

"The case itself has already been settled between the two parties, and this move in no way affects the outcome," Monsanto said in an e-mailed statement. "This ruling has only a limited meaning for the patent involved. Overall patent protection of Monsantos Roundup Ready Soybean is not at issue."