According to a report from Bloomberg Law, AGCO has lost challenges it made in court to invalidate two of Deere's patents involved in a lawsuit filed in 2018.

The patents cover seed metering systems, and AGCO argued "aspects of earlier planting machines were known techniques that could be combined to come up with the patented seeder." In response, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruled AGCO's arguments to be "simplistic and unpersuasive," and that they fail to account for the differences between machines and that AGCO did not "explain how inevitable problems in combining the earlier know-how would be handled."

These are just two of the ten challenges to Deere patents that AGCO has filed following Deere's June 2018 lawsuit against AGCO alleging patent infringement.

It was reported that Monsanto and Bayer backed AGCO's patent challenges and "pledged to support AGCO in the fight." It was also reported that the civil suit was on hold in Delaware, where the 2018 lawsuit was filed, while AGCO's challenges to Deere's patents are reviewed.