Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON) today announced that it is seeking the right to terminate its licensing agreements with Delta and Pine Land (D&PL) Company because of long-standing unresolved business disputes.  Monsanto filed its request with the American Arbitration Association (AAA) after several attempts to resolve issues directly with D&PL during the past two years failed.

"If we are successful in the arbitration, we will work to minimize potential seed supply disruptions.  We have various options to do this, including terminating Delta and Pine Land's licensing agreements in a timeframe that we believe will minimize the effect in the marketplace," said Kerry Preete, Vice President of U.S. Crop Production for Monsanto.

The company is asking AAA to determine that Monsanto has the right to terminate the 1996 U.S. licensing agreements that provide D&PL with access to Monsanto's Bollgard insect-protected cotton and Roundup Ready herbicide-tolerant technologies for cotton.  Monsanto believes D&PL has violated its duties to and its contracts with Monsanto in a variety of ways including: 
(1) Failing to calculate, collect and ensure that Monsanto was paid all royalty amounts due under the agreements;
(2) Breaching its fiduciary duty to Monsanto as the Managing Agent of D&M Partners by neglecting to properly collect and allocate the income of the D&M partnership; and
(3) Misusing Monsanto's intellectual property by inappropriately providing our technology to an unlicensed party.

"Monsanto remains committed to licensing our technology so that our value-added traits are available to U.S. cotton growers in a broad range of varieties," Preete said.  "This approach requires that the companies to whom we license our technologies be responsible business partners and stewards of the technology.  If we believe one of our licensees is not taking their responsibilities seriously, we must act to protect our intellectual property, our other seed licensees, and our shareowners."

Monsanto currently licenses its cotton trait technologies, including the Roundup Ready herbicide-tolerant trait and the Bollgard insect-protected cotton traits, through 10 seed companies, including Delta and Pine Land.

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