Monument Circle Acquisition Corp (MON)

[DewDiligence]

Re: MON’s patent on second-generation RR corn

[Jeff Zekauskas asked DuPont]: Does the postponement of the launch in soybeans to 2014/2015 render the patent dispute moot – that is, it doesn’t matter what happens with it because you’ll be introducing your product after the Monsanto glyphosate patent expires? And when does their [i.e. MON’s] patent expire in corn and glyphosate tolerant corn?

Jeff Zekauskas has a habit of asking CC questions where he already knows the answer (or thinks he does), presumably to test management’s honesty. I think that’s what Jeff was doing here with his question about the patent expiration for MON’s corn. (DuPont flunked the test by default by refusing to comment.)

To the best of my knowledge, the answer to Zekauskas’ question is 2021. This is when US patent 6,803,501, which governs MON’s second-generation RR trait in corn, expires:

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6,803,501.PN.&OS=PN/6,803,501&RS=PN/6,803,501

p.s. This patent is similar to an earlier patent owned by Rhone-Poulenc (a predecessor company of Aventis) that was the subject of litigation between MON and Rhone-Poulenc during the period immediately following MON’s launch of second-generation RR for corn.