Cargill Appeals Canola Patent Ruling

PORTLAND,Ore.—Cargill filed a notice of appeal on a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit preventing the company from enforcing two patents involving Cargill Clear Valley® high oleic canola oils in the United States.The appeal seeks to reverse the December ruling, which declared the patents unenforceable in the United States, although the same court found the patents valid in a previous court case against Dow AgroSciences, Dow AgroSciences Canada and Canbra Foods. In the prior proceedings, Dow and Canbra were ordered to pay Cargill $2 million in damages for violating Cargill’s Clear Valley canola oil patents.

The ruling addressed a post-trial motion by Dow alleging Cargill had not submitted all the relevant testing data to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

“The District Court applied incorrect legal standards and made clearly erroneous findings of fact on both the relevance of the unsubmitted data and Cargill’s intent in not submitting it,” said Ron Dudley, head of Cargill Specialty Canola Oils (www.clearvalleyoils.com).“We strongly believe the ruling is contrary to the law and will be overturned.”

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