How We Won a Patent Infringement Lawsuit for a Brazilian Sugar Company
The Beta Glucan Case
Hi, I'm Rich Beem. I'm a patent attorney in Chicago and I'd like to tell you about the Beta Glucan case. Now what is Beta Glucan? What you might have heard of is brewer's yeast. Now brewer's yeast is very good for the health, but it doesn't taste very good and people don't like to take it. So the active ingredient is called Beta Glucan, and we had a client in Brazil who makes ethanol out of sugar cane and a by-product is brewer's yeast. And this Beta Glucan is very valuable. So they brought some samples to McCormick Place, which is a big place for trade shows. And they were sued, because there was a company that bought up some Beta Glucan and all of these patents were just about expired. In fact, during the case, they did expire, and we found this out because we dug into the records. We dug into what's called the prosecution history of the communications that went back and forth with the Patent Office. And 20 years after the filing date of the patent, it expires. So we went into the Court and said "Your Honor, you should throw this case out because these patents are expired." Well, the plaintiff refused to dismiss the case. They argued that their patent was not expired but we proved it up and we got rid of the case. Now why do I tell you this? It's because if you are sued for patent infringement, you need a patent attorney to defend you, and that's what we do. That's what we do every day. So if you have a patent case, if you want to get a patent, if your patent is being infringed, or if someone accuses you of infringing their patent, call us. that's what we do everyday. 312-201-0011. Thank you for watching.
