BP and Union Carbide both claim victory over patent
15 Jan 2000
The long-running patents dispute between BP Chemicals and Union Carbide over their high-productivity polyethylene processes has reached a confusing conclusion, with both sides seeming to claim victory.
The case, in London's High Court, centred around the use of condensation technology at BP's Grangemouth PE unit. BP's own high-productivity technology is now well established, but before it was retrofitted to the Grangemouth plant, the company was using a condensation technology which Carbide claimed breached its patents. The court ruled that the use of condensation technology at Grangemouth before the installation of BP's own high-productivity technology was in breach of Carbide's patent. However, a further decision states that the BP technology in its final form, which has been retrofitted to three of the company's PE plants and is licensed to over 20 plants around the world, does not infringe Carbide's patent.
Both processes work by using liquid feedstock to extract heat from the PE reactor, thereby increasing its efficiency and its production capacity. The Carbide process injects liquid feedstock into the recycle stream, while the BP process separates out the liquid and gaseous phases of the feedstock and injects the liquid directly into the reactor's fluidised bed.
BP is to pay damages to Union Carbide as compensation for the decisions which went against it; the amount will be decided at a further hearing. However, BP's licensing manager, Martin Howard, said the decision was 'very positive,' because it confirmed that his version of high productivity was different from Carbide's, and left the company free to continue licensing.
