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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ingevity says it
intends to challenge a decision of the US District Court for the District of
Delaware regarding a patent-infringement complaint brought by Ingevity against
BASF, reported Chemweek.
Ingevity
says the court’s decision is based on an inaccurate interpretation of
intellectual property (IP) law. Ingevity’s suit against BASF alleges that BASF
infringed an Ingevity patent through testing canister systems using a
BASF-developed product that Ingevity says would likely compete with Ingevity’s
“honeycomb” technology, the company says.
According to Ingevity, its
patent covers certain canister systems designed to achieve gasoline vapor
emission levels that comply with the most stringent US Environmental Protection
Agency tier 3 and California LEV III regulations. The company notes that its
patent rights preclude third parties - including competitors, suppliers, testing
facilities, and automotive original equipment manufacturers - from engaging in
development activities such as prototype creation, testing, marketing, and
qualifying that fall within any of the patent’s claims until March 2022, when it
is set to expire.
“We intend to pursue our remedies to overturn this
decision, including an appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit,
if necessary. Ingevity is the established technology leader in providing
world-leading products for use in automotive evaporative emissions-control
systems. Our leadership and expertise in this application are unique and it is
incumbent upon us to defend our innovations against infringement - including
premature development activity - for the benefit of our customers and
shareholders,” says Ed Woodcock, executive vice president and
president/performance materials at Ingevity.
The company says the court’s
decision is expected to have a limited impact on its commercial operations or
financial results through patent expiration in March 2022. It notes that the
decision by the US District Court has no bearing on one of the company's other
patents in the area of canisters designed to reduce emissions in new, emerging
“low-purge” engines. This IP is currently protected by patents in the US, as
well as China and Europe, it says.
As MRC informed
previously, German chemicals maker BASF said in early November it
had put a project to build a petrochemicals complex in India worth up to USD4
billion on hold due to the economic uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
BASF signed a memorandum of understanding with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company
(ADNOC), Adani Group and Borealis AG in October 2019 to evaluate a collaboration
to build the chemical site in Mundra, in India’s Gujarat state.
Ethylene
and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene
(PP).
ccording to MRC's ScanPlast report,
Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,594,510 tonnes in the first nine
months of 2020, up by 1% year on year. Only high denstiy polyethylene (HDPE)
shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market
reached 880,130 tonnes in the nine months of 2020 (calculated using the formula:
production minus exports plus imports, exluding producers' inventories as of 1
January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.
BASF
is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for
example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial
gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important
customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and
automotive industries. |
