Exhibit 10.1
Confidential Treatment
has been requested for portions of this exhibit. The copy filed
herewith omits the information subject to the confidentiality
request. Omissions are designated as “***”. A
complete version of this exhibit has been filed separately with the
Securities and Exchange Commission.
LICENSE
AGREEMENT
between
BAYER CROPSCIENCE
AG
and
SENESCO TECHNOLOGIES,
INC.
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Initials
LICENSEE:
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Initials
SENESCO:
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1
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
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1.
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INTRODUCTION OF THE PARTIES
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3
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2.
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PREAMBLE
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3
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3.
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DEFINITIONS
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3
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4.
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LICENSE GRANT
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5
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5.
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IMPROVEMENT
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5
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6.
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SUBLICENSE GRANT
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6
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7.
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REPORTS
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6
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8.
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TRANSFER OF TANGIBLES AND
INFORMATION
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6
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9.
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MAINTENANCE AND ENFORCEMENT OF
PATENTS
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7
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10.
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BEST EFFORTS
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8
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11.
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CONSIDERATION
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8
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12.
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LIMITED WARRANTY. LIMITATION OF
LIABILITY
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11
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13.
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CONFIDENTIALITY –
PUBLICATIONS
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12
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14.
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GENERAL PROVISIONS
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13
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15.
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TERMINATION DURATION
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16
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ANNEX
I :
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Licensed
Patents
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ANNEX
II :
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Licensed
Know-How
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2
LICENSE
AGREEMENT
1. INTRODUCTION
OF THE PARTIES
This Agreement is
made effective the 23rd day of July , 2007,
(the “Effective Date”), by and between:
Bayer CropScience
AG ,
having its registered office at
Alfred-Nobel-Strasse 50, 40789 Monheim ,
Germany
(hereinafter referred to as “LICENSEE”)
and
Senesco Technologies,
Inc. ,
having its registered office at
303 George Street, Suite 420
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
United States of America
(hereinafter referred to as “SENESCO”)
2.
PREAMBLE
WHEREAS SENESCO has
developed certain technology related to conferring useful traits,
particularly increased seed yield, in plants based on modulating
the gene expression of eukaryotic translation initiation factor 5A
(“eIF-5A”) and/or deoxyhypusine synthase
(“DHS”);
WHEREAS LICENSEE
desires to obtain an exclusive license under the Patents and
Know-How as hereinafter defined for research and development and
for commercialization of certain Products as hereinafter
defined;
NOW THEREFORE, in
consideration of the mutual covenants and agreements set forth
below, the Parties HEREBY AGREE as follows:
3.
DEFINITIONS
In this Agreement the
following words and expressions shall have the following
meaning:
3.1.
“Advanced Development Completion”: ***
3
3.2.
“Agreement”: this agreement, which includes the
preamble and the ANNEXES.
3.3.
“ANNEX”: the documents marked “ANNEX” and
which form part of this Agreement.
3.4.
“Affiliate”: any company controlled by, or under common
control with, or controlling LICENSEE, “control”
meaning in this context the direct or indirect ownership of at
least fifty per cent (50 %) of the voting stock/shares of a
company, or the power to nominate at least half of the directors,
or the power otherwise to determine the policy of a company.
3.5.
“COTTON”: cells, plants, seeds, part of plants of any
species of the genus Gossypium cultivated for cotton fiber and/or
cotton seed oil production.
3.6.
“Early Development Completion”: ***
3.7.
“Effective Date”: the date first written above.
3.8.
“Gene Component”: a single locus in the genome of a
COTTON, comprising a DNA sequence introduced by BAYER which
modulates the native expression of eIF-5A and/or DHS.
3.9.
“Gene Component Confirmation”: ***
3.10.
“Licensed Patents”: all Patents a) owned by SENESCO and
b) licensed-in, with the right to grant sublicenses, by SENESCO,
which relate to the Licensed Technology, including, without
limitation, those Patents listed in ANNEX I.
3.11.
“Licensed
Know-How”: all information, sequences, data, results,
knowledge, biological material, processes, protocols and/or
algorithms in the possession of SENESCO existing on or before the
Effective Date which a) is not generally available, b) that relates
to the use of Licensed Technology in Arabidopsis and COTTON and c)
is transferred to LICENSEE identified as “Know How”.
Licensed Know How will be listed in ANNEX II and will be
subject to the confidentiality obligations as set out in Article
13.
3.12.
“Licensed Technology”: methods and means to modulate
expression of eIF-5A and/or DHS (including all of their
isoforms).
3.13.
“License Income”: the amounts of royalties and/or lump
sum fees effectively received by BAYER from a third party other
than an Affiliate as a remuneration for the grant of a sublicense,
without transfer of biological materials, under the Licensed
Patents and/or the Licensed Know-How.
3.14.
“Parties”: the parties to this Agreement and
“Party” means one of them.
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3.15.
“Patent”: any pending patent application(s) and
unexpired patent(s) in any country, and any unexpired patent that
subsequently issues upon any patent application and including all
patents that issue on all divisions, continuations,
continuations-in-part, reissues, reexaminations, extensions,
Supplementary Protection Certificates, which have not been
adjudicated to be invalid or unenforceable in an unappealable or
unappealed decision of the applicable patent office or court of
competent jurisdiction.
3.16.
“Product”: any and all COTTON which contains at least
one Gene Component, and which would infringe at least one Valid
Claim of the Licensed Patents in the absence of a license under
this Agreement.
3.17.
“Product Launch”: first commercial sale to a third
party of the first Product to be commercialized.
3.18.
“Product Seed Unit”: ***
3.19.
“Proof of Phenotype”: ***
3.20.
“Regulatory Clearance”: ***
3.21.
“Territory”: worldwide.
3.22.
“Valid Claim”: any claim of an issued and unexpired
Patent that has not been finally rejected or declared invalid by a
patent office or court of competent jurisdiction by a decision
which is unappealable or unappealed, or which has not been revoked
by an agency of competent jurisdiction.
4. LICENSE
GRANT
4.1.
SENESCO hereby grants to LICENSEE, solely in COTTON, an exclusive
license under the Licensed Patents and the Licensed Know-How to use
the Licensed Technology to make, have made, sell, have sold, offer
for sale, have offered for sale, import, and use Products in the
Territory and, solely for COTTON, to otherwise practice and use
Licensed Technology.
4.2.
For the avoidance of doubt, it is stated expressly that the license
granted in Article 4.1 includes the right for LICENSEE and its
Affiliates to subcontract the implementation of activities covered
by the license under responsibility of LICENSEE or its Affiliates,
provided that the subcontractor shall implement such activities for
the sole benefit and under the supervision of LICENSEE or its
Affiliates.
5.
IMPROVEMENT
5.1.
LICENSEE shall be the owner of the proprietary rights in all
results obtained and inventions made by LICENSEE or any of its
AFFILIATES by using the Licensed
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Technology, Licensed
Know How, Licensed Patents under the terms and during the course of
this Agreement (hereinafter “Licensee Improvement”),
and has the right to protect these Licensee Improvements by any
means LICENSEE deems appropriate including filing patent
applications in relation thereto.
5.2.
LICENSEE grants SENESCO a fully paid up royalty free non-exclusive
license on any Licensee Improvement to the Licensed Technology
developed by Licensee and/or its Affiliates through use in whole or
in part of the Licensed Patents, Licensed Know-How and/or Licensed
Technology for use outside COTTON and outside the following crops:
***
5.3.
Without prejudice to the provisions regarding improvement set forth
in the license agreement dated November 8, 2006 regarding brassica,
for purposes of this articles, a Licensee Improvement which is
subject to this Article 5 shall mean an invention, whether
protected by Patents or not, that is only directed to the improved
or optimized expression of eIF-5A and/or DHS in plants (such as
novel eIF-5A genes and DHS genes, novel chimeric genes involving
eIF-5A and/or DHS genes) and shall specifically not include an
invention made by Licensee that is applicable to the expression of
a broader class of genes. In addition, any invention made by
Licensee to the extent that it is directed or is applied in
relation to COTTON shall always be a Licensee Improvement.
6. SUBLICENSE
GRANT
From the Effective
Date, LICENSEE is entitled to grant written sublicenses under the
Licensed Patents and Licensed Know-How as licensed under this
Agreement, solely in COTTON, to its Affiliates and any third
party.
7.
REPORTS
Upon the first (1
st ) anniversary date of this Agreement and every year
thereafter LICENSEE shall provide to SENESCO an annual written
report with an overview of the annual License Income for that
respective year.
8. TRANSFER OF
TANGIBLES AND INFORMATION
Within eight (8) days
from the Effective Date, SENESCO shall provide at no cost materials
and data pertaining to the Licensed Patents and Licensed Know-How
available to SENESCO for LICENSEE’s use in development of
Products.
With respect to
Licensed Patents SENESCO shall promptly inform LICENSEE of any new
patent applications that are filed related to Licensed Technology
and shall provide status
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updates on the Licensed
Patents on an annual basis.
9. MAINTENANCE
AND ENFORCEMENT OF PATENTS
9.1.
SENESCO shall have the right to file, prosecute, maintain and
defend, at its own discretion and at its own cost, any and all
Licensed Patents. However, SENESCO shall use its best efforts to
have patents granted with a scope covering the Licensed Technology
and its use in COTTON at least in *** to the extent that securing
patent protection for any part of the Licensed Patents in these
countries is still possible at the Effective Date. If at any time
and for whatever reason SENESCO decides to abandon or withdraw any
of the Licensed Patents pertaining to any of the above mentioned
countries without the remainder of the Licensed Patents in that
country providing such scope, SENESCO shall provide LICENSEE notice
of its intent hereof. If LICENSEE agrees that the Licensed
Patents that would remain in such country after such abandonment or
withdrawal would not or could not sufficiently cover the Licensed
Technology and its use in COTTON in such country, LICENSEE may
object to such abandonment or withdrawal in which case SENESCO
shall continue to prosecute, maintain and/or defend such Licensed
Patent that it intended to abandon or withdraw. In case such
Licensed Patent is a pending patent application or an issued patent
that is challenged by a third party, SENESCO may request LICENSEE
to assist in the prosecution and/or defense of such Licensed Patent
after which, in the absence of a joint decision by the Parties
otherwise, LICENSEE will use its best efforts to provide such
assistance at its own cost. At least once a year SENESCO will
provide to LICENSEE a status update of the Licensed Patents in the
above-mentioned countries with a copy of all the claims that are
pending or issued in all Licensed Patents in such country.
9.2.
As soon as SENESCO has filed, or has obtained rights on, a new
Licensed Patent which contains information or data not contained in
a Licensed Patent which is already published or previously
communicated by SENESCO to LICENSEE, SENESCO shall provide LICENSEE
with a copy of such Licensed Patent (for instance a patent
application on a new invention related to the Licensed Technology).
Such Licensed Patent and all information and data contained therein
shall be subject to the confidentiality obligations of Article
13.
9.3.
SENESCO shall not have the right to voluntarily terminate any
license to a Patent of the Licensed Patent which it has licensed
from a third party and which is sublicensed to Licensee pursuant to
this Agreement. However, nothing in this paragraph shall interfere
with SENESCO’s rights to terminate such license under
circumstances where this Agreement is terminated under the
provisions of Article 15.
9.4.
Either Party shall notify the other Party promptly in writing of
any act of infringement of the Licensed Patents.
With regard to any acts
of infringement of the Licensed Patents involving the use of
Licensed Technology in COTTON, LICENSEE will have the exclusive
right and will
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be solely responsible
for taking any action or suit for patent infringement of the
Licensed Patents against such acts and to conduct such action or
suit in accordance with its best judgment and at its own cost. Such
right shall include the right to enter into settlements involving
the Licensed Patents but only in so far as the terms and conditions
of such settlement have effect solely with regard to the use of
Licensed Technology in COTTON. Upon LICENSEE’s request,
SENESCO shall provide reasonable assistance to LICENSEE in
connection with such action or suit and SENESCO shall sign such
documents as may be required by applicable law in order to allow
LICENSEE to exercise its right to bring and/or conduct an action or
suit pursuant to this Article 9.4. LICENSEE will reimburse SENESCO
for any reasonable out of pocket expenses, which are documented in
writing, incurred by SENESCO for rendering such assistance.
LICENSEE will keep SENESCO continuously informed of any actions or
suits pursuant to this subparagraph of this Article 9.4.
SENESCO shall have the right to participate in all decisions and
actions concerning the validity of any Licensed Patent claim,
including the right to join as a party any such action for
infringement brought by or against LICENSEE where a defense or
claim of patent invalidity or unenforceability has been or will be
raised. SENESCO shall have the righ
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