Materia loses metathesis patent case

Abstract

A federal jury has ordered technology and catalyst firm Materia to pay Evonik Industries royalties of more than $1.5 million in a dispute over the validity of a key patent covering ruthenium-based olefin metathesis catalysts used to make plastics and specialty oleochemicals. However, the jury also decided that Materia had not willfully or maliciously violated Evonik’s patent. It did not assess punitive damages. The Delaware jury’s decision may end a seven-year-old dispute covering academic patents licensed to Materia based on discoveries by Robert H. Grubbs of Caltech and other scientists. Grubbs, along with Yves Chauvin and Richard R. Schrock, shared the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their role in the discovery of olefin metathesis. According to Evonik, an earlier ruling by the judge hearing the case denied the validity of Materia’s opposing patent. “A significant number of Materia’s metathesis catalysts and some products they make with them are now