Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON) announced today that Dow AgroScience (DAS) has dismissed with prejudice a 1995 lawsuit, originally filed by Mycogen Plant Genetics, Inc., now owned by DAS, related to biotech-gene technology for protection of plants against insect damage.  The abandonment of the litigation followed an earlier determination by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, confirming Monsanto's scientists were the first to invent this important technology.

"This dismissal is further indication that Monsanto consistently prevails in legal disputes over which company's scientists were first to invent the important crop-improvement technology of synthetic Bt genes," said Robert T. Fraley, Ph.D., executive vice president and chief technology officer for Monsanto.

Dow AgroScience's suit had been pending in U.S. District Court in San Diego since 1995 and was dismissed once based on multiple grounds, including Monsanto's successful 1998 patent trial over Mycogen in Delaware on related patent claims, but the California case was later partially reinstated by an appellate court to address certain contested factual matters.  In February, the U.S. Trade and Patent Office decision decided in favor of Monsanto on the central issue of which company's scientists were the first inventors of the technology claimed by various patents.

The May 19, 1995, Mycogen Plant Science patent suit filed in the U.S. District Court in California did not involve any current Monsanto seed products.  On March 29, 2004, DAS filed a legal action in federal court in Indiana seeking to appeal the adverse decision of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  Monsanto has moved to transfer that new appeal to the California court, which has previously considered the disputes between the companies relating to this technology and will seek the complete dismissal of the matter in light of the prior legal rulings against Mycogen that have been upheld on appeal.

Monsanto Company a leading global provider of technology-based solutions and agricultural products that improve farm productivity and food quality.