Dow Chemical's US$61.7M patent-infringement verdict against NOVA Chemicals upheld by U.S. Court of Appeals

Alison Gallant

LOS ANGELES , January 24, 2012 (Industry Intelligence) – The Dow Chemical Co.’s US$61.7 million patent-infringement verdict against NOVA Chemicals Corp. has been upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, Bloomberg reported Jan. 24.

The original lawsuit alleged that NOVA infringed upon two of Dow’s patents, and used Dow inventions in its Surpass plastic.

NOVA had alleged both that no patent infringement had occurred, and that the patents themselves were invalid.

Dow won its case against NOVA in 2010, but the verdict was then overturned by Circuit Judge Jimmie Reyna, who accepted NOVA’S argument that Dow had transferred the patents in question to a holding company.

In the most recent decision, a majority of the three-judge panel sided with the lower-court judge and held that, despite the transfer, the patents could not be considered the creation of the holding company.

The primary source of this article is Bloomberg, New York, New York, on Jan. 24, 2012.

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