Sue, Baby, Sue: trade secret wars ignite in bioenergy
In Sue Sioux Falls, a pair of lawsuits involving leading advanced biofuels companies over intellectual property rights and trade secrets, are pointing towards a litigious future for advanced biofuels.
In South Dakota, the Chicago Trib is reporting that Sioux Falls-based POET has filed a a lawsuit against Jodi Heath, a former commodities manager for the Poet’s corn ethanol plant in North Manchester, Indiana. The suit alleges that Heath transmitted trade secrets regarding production vosts at POET, and used the information to calculate the highest prices that POET would pay for corn, and used this informition in working for a competitor, despite a non-compete agreement.
Meanwhile, In Illinois, INEOS Bio has filed suit in state circuit court against Coskata and Rahul Basu, a Coskata technical director. The suit alleges that Dr. Basu and Coskata have “disclosed, used, and unlawfully profited from INEOS’ confidential, proprietary and trade secret information concerning the design and operation” of processes and equipment used in gasification, fermentation and distillation of biomass into ethanol, specifically related to “suspended cell bioreactors.” Coskata responds that it has been working on suspended cell bioreactors prior to Dr. Basu joining the company in 2007 and that the operation and control of suspended cell biorectors is a broad, generic description of a well-known technical field.
Category: Fuels
