BioFuels Journal

Northvale, New Jersey — In a significant victory for the ethanol industry, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana made its summary judgment decision public on November 14, 2014 in the case In re: Method of Processing Ethanol Byproducts and Related Subsystems (‘858) Patent Litigation.

The court ruled in favor of all 17 industry defendants, which included ethanol plants and manufacturers of ethanol production equipment, and found against the plaintiff GS CleanTech in almost all respects.

The court found that the subject patents were invalid and were not infringed by any of the defendants.

In ruling the patents invalid, the court cited multiple grounds including: offering the invention for sale more than one year before filing for the patents; that the invention was already the subject of a patent application filed by another party; that the patents were obvious; and that CleanTech had failed to name the correct inventors.

The court also found certain claims to be invalid as lacking an adequate written description and as not enabled.

The case, brought by GS CleanTech, made claims against the defendants alleging that their use of a centrifuge to recover corn oil from evaporated thin stillage infringes four of GS CleanTech patents (U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,601,858, 8,008,516, 8,008,517, and 8,283,484, referred to as “the ‘858 patent family”).

“This is a significant victory for GEA and for the entire ethanol industry” said Michael Vick, President of GEA Mechanical Equipment US, Inc.

“GEA and its co-defendants are committed to honoring any validly issued patent, but we have firmly believed all along that these patents are not valid, and the court agreed with us."

"We are happy that the industry can now get back to business and contribute to making America energy independent.”

A few of the highlights from the opinion include the following quotes:

• “The Court concludes that CleanTech has not produced admissible evidence that the Plant Defendants infringe the ‘oil’ limitation of all the claims of the ‘858 patent family […] this conclusion is dispositive of all of CleanTech’s allegations as to all the Plant defendants and summary judgment in favor of the Plant Defendants is warranted on CleanTech’s allegations of infringement of all claims of the ‘858 patent family.”

• “The Court concludes that the undisputed contemporaneous evidence supports only one conclusion, the on-sale bar applies and invalidates the ‘858 patent family …”

• “The Court concludes that there is no genuine issue of material fact that Prevost anticipates Claim 8 of the ‘858 patent; all of the asserted claims of the ‘516 patent except Claims 5 and 6; all the claims of the ‘517 patent; and Claim 30 of the ‘484 patent.”

• “The Court concludes that there is no material question of fact that the ‘858 patent family would have been obvious to a [person of ordinary skill in the art] at the time of the invention.”

• “The Court is troubled by the evidence that suggests CleanTech has engaged in a pattern of obfuscation, possible deceit, and ever shifting positions …“

GEA Mechanical Equipment was the first to bring suit against GS CleanTech and has provided significant legal and financial resources for the matter’s defense in support of the entire joint defense team.

The company has long maintained that GS CleanTech’s patents were for an industry process that had been performed for years in many industries, and were therefore invalid.

Still pending before the court is the defendants’ claim that the patents were procured by fraud before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The defendants intend to pursue all available remedies on this claim.

For more information, please contact Michael Vick at 201-767-3900 or Michael.Vick@gea.com

See Related Websites/Articles:

• GEA Group
• GS Cleantech

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