Jury Rejects Deere Lawsuit Against AGCO Over Patents

Last week a jury in Delaware federal court found that AGCO Corp’s planting equipment did not infringe two patents owned by agriculture-industry rival Deere & Co. Deere had accused AGCO subsidiary Precision Planting LLC’s seed-delivery components of violating the patents along with the AGCO planters that contain them.

Deere’s initial 2018 lawsuit accused Duluth, Georgia-based AGCO of infringing 12 patents related to Deere’s ExactEmerge planters. Deere later narrowed the case to the two patents at issue.

The lawsuit requested an unspecified amount of money damages that AGCO said in a U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission filing could amount to $7 million. The AGCO SEC filing said Deere’s damages estimate was “significantly higher.”

AGCO told the court that it did not infringe Deere’s patents because Precision’s vSet2 seed meters and SpeedTube seed tubes work in a different way.

AGCO bought Precision Planting from Monsanto Co subsidiary The Climate Corp in 2017. The case is Deere & Co v. AGCO Corp, U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, No. 1:18-cv-00827.

Source: Reuters