Licensing battle is costly

I am interested in the March 28 Business 380 article on the licensing battle (lawyers fights and costs) between Pioneer and Monsanto. As a farm broadcaster on a field trip to a research farm near Monmouth, Ill., a few decades ago, I witnessed what Pioneer, now Dupont Pioneer, saw it was facing in building and delivering genetically modified plant seeds.

The county extension agent sliced open one randomly selected stalk, selected from the patch of Monsanto modified corn. At that time, the major nemesis was corn root worm. The stalk was white, as it should be, while the stalk selected from the “regular” corn was riddled with root worm evidence. That told me the future in one knife slice. The firm was winning with the science it developed.

Monsanto fought off firms that felt they had claims in the corn arena. This was the classic confrontation of the last few decades in agriculture.

The outcome is that Dupont Pioneer seed science will pay royalties in billions of dollars annually for the right to use subsequent scientific advantages developed by Monsanto. The behavior on both sides of this argument cost millions of dollars and perhaps worse yet, years of delays by Dupont Pioneer and other corn competitors to challenge the overall market and get more market share. Battles like this one are not unique in the business world, but agriculture seems to get more than its fair share.

Max Molleston

Iowa City