Gevo Partly Prevails on Butamax Patent-Infringement Claim

Gevo Inc., a U.S. biofuel producer, partly prevailed in its bid for a federal court ruling that it doesn’t infringe a Butamax Advanced Biofuels LLC patent for a method to commercially produce isobutanol.

U.S. District Judge Sue Robinson in Wilmington, Delaware, today ruled that “as a matter of law,” Gevo doesn’t infringe Butamax’s patent under the so-called doctrine of equivalents. The judge agreed with Gevo that the difference between its method and Butamax’s wasn’t insubstantial as Butamax argued. The judge declined to rule that there’s no infringement at all, rejecting requests from both companies to resolve the dispute without a trial.