Monsanto (1996)
In 1996 Monsanto paid $150 million to purchase Agracetus and its patents broad claims to transgenic cotton plants. In 2000, Dr. Peet played a critical role in assisting Aventis Cropscience and Dr. Norma Trolinder in their lawsuit against Monsanto in which Dr. Trolinder was successfully added as an
inventor to the transgenic cotton patents. Dr. Trolinder assigned her ownership rights in the patents to Aventis Cropscience. As a result, Aventis Cropscience co-owned the transgenic cotton patents with Monsanto and had freedom-to-operate to sell transgenic cotton seeds. In 2001 Bayer paid approximately €7.25 billion to acquire Aventis Cropscience, in part driven by Aventis’ ability to commercialize transgenic cotton in competition with Monsanto.