Finland oil company alleges Dynamic Fuels is infringing on its patent
BY Staff and Wire Reports
Thursday, May 31, 2012
5/31/12 at 2:32 AM
An oil company from Finland has sued Dynamic Fuels LLC, a joint venture between Tyson Foods and Tulsa-based Syntroleum Corp., contending it is infringing a patent on motor fuels made partly from chicken fat.
Neste Oil Oyj contends Dynamic Fuels is making a product that violates a new patent for NExBTL diesel fuel.
"Defendants have no license or other authorization to use the inventions" and owe damages, Neste said in a complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Del.
The Espoo, Finland-based company says it has invested 1.5 billion euros ($1.86 billion) in diesel production, Bloomberg News reported.
The Tulsa company denied the allegation.
"Syntroleum has not infringed any of Neste's alleged patent rights and Syntroleum intends vigorously to defend against the complaint's allegations, and is confident that its position will be vindicated," the company said in a statement.
Syntroleum said the patent in question is related to another diesel fuel patent of Neste's. Upon re-examination, that patent was thrown out by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office because "the fuel composition as claimed would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art."
Gary Mickelson, a spokesman for Springdale, Ark.-based Tyson Foods Inc., deferred comment to Syntroleum.
Dynamic Fuels operates a plant in Geismar, La., that produces a "drop-in" renewable diesel that can replace petroleum diesel without engine modification, Syntroleum and Tyson say.
Syntroleum announced in February that Dynamic Fuels had signed on Norfolk Southern Corp., which operates the Norfolk Southern Railway, as a customer for the renewable diesel.
Norfolk Southern operates more than 21,000 route miles in 22 states, Washington, D.C., and Ontario province in Canada.
Last last year, the U.S. Navy submitted an order for 450,000 gallons of diesel from Dynamic Fuels.
Original Print Headline: Dynamic Fuels gets complaint from Finns
