Indianapolis, IN – Senior Judge Larry J. McKinney of the Southern District of Indiana has issued a claim construction order in a patent infringement lawsuit. Patent attorneys for GS Cleantech Corporation of New York, New York, filed a patent infringement suit regarding patent no. 7,601,858, Method of processing ethanol byproducts and related subsystems which has been issued by the US Patent Office.
The ‘858 patent is directed to “a method of processing a concentrated byproduct of a dry milling process for producing ethanol. In its most basic form, the method comprises of recovering oil from the concentrated byproduct.” Id. col.2 l.18-22. The specification of the patent repeatedly refers to the invention as a two-step process comprised of a concentration step and a recovery step. Plaintiffs accuse Defendants’ methods of infringing “The Concentrate Terms” of the ‘858 patent.
In the order the Court construed the following terms:
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Claim Term |
Construction |
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“concentrate”/”concentrated byproduct”/ “concentrated thin stillage”. |
“syrup containing water, oil, and solids resulting from the concentrating or evaporating process”. |
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“mechanically processing” |
“to subject to a mechanical device (or devices) to effect a particular result”. |
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“heating and mechanically processing the concentrate/ concentrated byproduct/concentrated thin stillage to separate the oil from the concentrate/concentrated byproduct/concentrated thin stillage” |
“the Concentrate Term (as construed by the Court in this Order) subjected to heat and a mechanical device (or devices) to extract a product that is substantially oil from the Concentrate Term (as construed by the Court in this Order)”. |
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“centrifuging the concentrate to recover oil “. |
“processing the concentrate (as defined by the Court in this Order) with a centrifuge to separate the oil from the concentrate so that the oil stream coming out of the centrifuge is substantially oil and the remaining concentrate stream coming out of the centrifuge is substantially free of oil” |
Practice Tip:Previous articles about this litigation have posted many times by Indiana Intellectual Property Law News including:
GS Cleantech Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against Flottweg in Indiana
Multiple Patent Infringement Suits Brought by Greenshift Consolidated in Indiana
GS CleanTech Sues Iroquois Bio-Energy for Patent Infringement
Cardinal Ethanol Sued by GS Cleantech for Patent Infringement