DuPont (Wilmington, DE) has filed two lawsuits against rival agbio firm Monsanto (St. Louis, MO), turning up the heat in a growing legal dispute between the companies. The first, filed in federal court in Wilmington, alleges that Monsanto stole gene technology from its subsidiary Asgrow (which it acquired in 1996), which had licensed it from DuPont in the early 1990s. DuPont alleges that, as a result, Monsanto was able to introduce its Roundup Ready soybean two years ahead of schedule, thus destroying the market for DuPont's own herbicide-resistant soybean. Today, 35 million acres of cropland—about 50% of the US soybean crop—is grown from Monsanto's genetically modified Roundup Ready seed, compared with just 5 million acres of DuPont's herbicide-resistant STS soybean. The second lawsuit, filed in federal court in Florence, SC, charges that Monsanto tried to monopolize cottonseed and herbicide markets. Monsanto spokesman Bryan Hurley says the lawsuits “are absolutely without merit” and were filed in response to a separate legal action in which Monsanto is suing a DuPont subsidiary, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, to invalidate a 1995 agreement that gives Pioneer access to Monsanto agricultural genes for a cheaper price than other seed companies.