Seminis Vegetable Seeds Inc., the world's largest developer and producer of vegetable and fruit seeds, has agreed to an out-of-court settlement with 3 Star Lettuce, LLC, of Salinas, California, Kenneth Dubas, Robert Zagajeski, and Javier Saldana regarding Seminis' allegations of intellectual property infringement by 3 Star and the other defendants.

According to Ken Dubas, President of 3 Star, the company believed it was free to produce, rename and sell Seminis' PVP materials under the "farmer's exemption" provision to the Plant Variety Protection (PVP) laws. "We recognize now that our actions in this instance were improper and we regret that Seminis was harmed. We support Plant Variety Protection laws since they are needed by seed companies like 3 Star and Seminis to protect our investments, as well as for growers to know that they are getting the PVP seed varieties that they order."

Bruno Ferrari, Executive Senior Vice President at Seminis, indicated that Seminis was satisfied with the settlement. "We are pleased with the results of this case. Seminis invests nearly $50 million each year to improve vegetables and fruits for growers and consumers, and it is imperative that we protect our intellectual property so that we can recoup our expenses and invest in future discoveries," he said.

As part of the settlement, 100% of the revenue generated by the sales of the four (4) protected varieties currently marketed by 3 Star will be remitted to Seminis. After January 31, 2004, 3 Star agreed to cease all sales of the misappropriated varieties, and to not infringe on Seminis' products in the future. All other aspects of the settlement remain confidential.

Plant Variety Protection (PVP) laws protect seed companies from unauthorized reproduction of their plant varieties, while allowing bona fide researchers to continue using the protected plants to develop new and improved varieties.