LICENSED Chevron Phillips can now make metallocene polyethylene without fear of lawsuits.

The settlement was announced on the eve of K 2001, the big triennial plastics trade show held last week in Düsseldorf, Germany. It closely followed a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that upheld the validity of U.S. patent 5,324,800, the cornerstone of ExxonMobil's metallocene technology portfolio. That decision overturned a prior ruling by the U.S. district court in Houston.

ExxonMobil and Chevron Phillips aren't disclosing the details of their settlement, but say it includes a cross license of some ExxonMobil metallocene patent rights to Chevron Phillips and some Chevron Phillips polyethylene composition patent rights to ExxonMobil.

Separately, Chevron Phillips and Univation Technologies, the polyethylene technology joint venture of ExxonMobil and Dow Chemical, also struck a cross licensing agreement.

According to James P. Harris, ExxonMobil Chemical's senior vice president for polymers, ExxonMobil now has no outstanding patent infringement litigation anywhere in the world. Notably, the company settled with Union Carbide in 1997, with Dow in 1999, and with Mobil in late 1999 when the two oil giants merged.

Executives involved in the latest settlement expect it to help accelerate the demand for metallocene polyethylene. Speaking at K 2001, Univation President John Verity acknowledged that legal disputes had been holding the business back. "Intellectual property ownership had been a big problem," he said. "We were all spending too much money on lawyers."

[Previous Story] [Next Story]

Chemical & Engineering News
Copyright © 2001 American Chemical Society