Monsanto, the world's biggest seed company has filed a suit against Du Pont, the chemicals major for unlawful use of Monanto's proprietary Roundup Ready herbicide tolerant technologies in soybeans and corn.

DuPont said in a response that Monsanto was "stifling healthy competition" and farmers should benefit from such technologies without restrictions.

According to Monsanto the suit was filed on Monday in federal court in St Louis against DuPont and its subsidiary, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.

 Monsanto said like other seed companies Pioneer too can sell soybeans and corn with the Roundup Ready trait. However, Pioneer has publicly stated its intention to replace the trait with DuPont's claimed glyphosate tolerant Optimum GAT trait.

Monsanto pointed out in a statement that Pioneer has recently admitted that the Optimum GAT trait when used alone presents unacceptable risks to farmers.

 According to the suit filed by Monsanto, Pioneer is misusing the Roundup Ready trait to mask problems with Optimum GAT.

Monsanto said that Pioneer's actions amounted to violation of Monsanto's contractual rights and US patents and demanded that DuPont honour its agreements and respect patented technologies.

This is not the first time that Monsanto has had initiate legal proceedings for breach of contractual obligations. In another case involving the company  it was determined by the court the Pioneer had breached its license  and unlawfully used Monsanto's patented technology. Following that case in which Monsanto prevailed, an agreement was reached in which Pioneer had breached whereby Pioneer was able to continue licensed use of Monsanto's technology.

According to the company it is confident of prevailing once again in the suit.

The company said that true inventions will be critical for meeting the future gold global demand especially in the context of a growing population. Experts predict that the world needs to double agricultural output by 2050 to feed a growing population.

Protecting inventions and respecting contracts are critical to driving broad investment to meet this challenge, according to the company The company is in process of delivering two game-changes technologies to farmers to help them achieve higher yields.