Bayer files Chinese patent suit over mefenpyr
Date:04-22-2008
Bayer CropScience has filed a lawsuit against the Chinese company, Jiangsu Tian Rong in an intermediate court in Jiang Su, China. The lawsuit is to enforce Bayer’s Chinese patent for its herbicide safener, mefenpyr.The Chinese company is accused of unlawfully producing mefenpyr in mixture with the cereal graminicide,fenoxaprop-P-ethyl, and selling the product to local farmers as well as to customers in other Asian countries.
Bayer markets mefenpyr in mixtures with fenoxaprop-P-ethyl under the brand name, Puma, which is under patent protection in China. Bayer is confident of winning since Chinese patent law prohibits “not only the manufacturing, but also export” of patented active ingredients, says Bayer CropScience’s head of patents and licensing, Dr Ralf-Rüdiger Jesse.
The company believes that strong patent protection forms the basis for its innovations and is determined to enforce its patent rights. It also won a case against a Chinese company producing counterfeit versions of, Puma Super (fenoxaprop-P-ethyl 6.9%) in 2006.
Print this page. 