By Blake Brittain

July 15 (Reuters) - Agricultural company Syngenta has sued German chemical giant BASF BASFn.DE, alleging in a Delaware lawsuit that BASF's new corn herbicide Ridivex infringes a patent related to Syngenta's competing herbicide Storen.

Syngenta said in the complaint, filed Tuesday and made public on Wednesday, that Ridivex misuses its patented chemical formula for a weed killer combined with a crop "safener" to protect crops from damage.

Syngenta said that Ridivex is expected to be approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency "within days," which would clear the way for BASF to begin selling it, and asked the court to block BASF from launching its herbicide in the United States.

Syngenta told the court that BASF could siphon away important sales of its Storen herbicide if allowed to begin selling Ridivex before the autumn planting season.

"The June–September distributor purchasing window is a critical inflection point that largely determines sales outcomes for the entire year," Syngenta said in the lawsuit. "If a competing product enters the market during or before this distributor purchasing window — particularly one positioned as a direct alternative to Storen — it can displace Syngenta’s product before sales to growers even begin."

Syngenta also requested an unspecified amount of monetary damages.

A BASF spokesperson said that the company was aware of the complaint and reviewing it. Spokespeople for Syngenta did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the complaint.

The case is Syngenta Crop Protection AG v. BASF Agricultural Solutions US LLC, U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, No. 1:26-cv-00859.

For Syngenta: Jeremy Anderson, Toni-Junell Herbert, Charles Carson, Leif Sigmond and Jennifer Kurcz of Baker & Hostetler

For BASF: not yet available