Positive court ruling for Gevo hasn’t dampened Butamax resolve

The US District Court for Delaware has entered a final judgement in one of the court battles between Butamax Advanced Biofuels and Gevo.

The long running dispute between the two isobutanol producers, over claims about patent infringements (catchily named 188 Patent and 889 Patent for ease of reference), was settled on 10 April in favour of Gevo.

‘It is hereby ordered and adjudged that final judgment be and hereby is entered in favour of defendant Gevo and against plaintiff Butamax Advance Biofuels with respect to the claims relating to ’188 and ’889 patents,’ said judge Sue Robinson.

The decision could be seen as a crushing blow to Butamax which first filed an infringement lawsuit at the start of 2011 regarding patent 188. But, that summer, Gevo asked the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to invalidate that and the patent 889, which covers methods for low-cost bio-isobutnaol production.

Gevo has been quoted as saying this result is a ‘huge victory for us and our shareholders’, but Butamax thinks they shouldn’t be counting their chickens just yet.

‘On 10 April the USPTO issued an Action Closing Prosecution (ACP) rejecting all claims of Gevo’s patent number  8,101,808, in the inter partes re-examination filed by Butamax on 7 May 7 2012,’ reads a Butamax statement. ‘The 808 patent was described by Gevo as “a landmark patent … on its GIFT separation unit, a central element in its fermentation technology”.

‘The significance of this ACP,’ the statement continues, ‘is that the patent re-examination specialist responsible has now heard both sides of the argument with respect to this patent and has concluded that all of the original, amended and added claims are unpatentable.’

The end doesn’t not seem nigh in this stand off.