Gevo Dismisses Butamax Patent Infringement Lawsuit
16-May-2012
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ENGLEWOOD, Colo.- Gevo Inc., a leading renewable chemicals and next-generation biofuels company, commented on the lawsuit filed today by Butamax™ Advanced Biofuels, LLC (Butamax) alleging infringement of US Patent No. 8,178,328 (‘328 Patent).
“The claims in the ‘328 Patent are virtually identical to the claims in Butamax’s earlier-issued 7,851,188 Patent (‘188 Patent) which were recently rejected and declared unpatentable by the US Patent and Trademark Office during reexamination,” said Brett Lund, Gevo’s Executive Vice President and General Counsel. “The ‘328 Patent issued from a child application of the ‘188 Patent and purports to cover engineered isobutanol-producing microorganisms.”
“Like Butamax’s ‘188 Patent, the technology described in the ‘328 Patent was invented by others and repeatedly described in journal publications dating back to the 1960s,” continued Lund. “We will request reexamination of the ‘328 Patent using similar arguments and are extremely confident that the outcome will be the same.”
Gevo is converting existing ethanol plants into biorefineries to make renewable building block products for the chemical and fuel industries.