U.S. Supreme Court reaffirms Unocal’s gasoline patents

Petroleum News Alaska Staff

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the validity of Unocal Corp.’s cleaner burning gasoline patents Feb. 20.

“The Supreme Court announcement today ends nearly six years of litigation initiated by five of the nation’s largest oil companies who were attempting to overturn Unocal’s ‘393’ patent in the federal courts,” Unocal CEO Charles Williamson said in a statement.

Unocal said it is ready and willing to negotiate with refiners, blenders and importers on licensing agreements for the patents, which, it said, produce a cleaner burning gasoline.

Williamson said using “the formulations in our cleaner burning gasoline patents can save refiners and consumers millions of dollars while improving air quality. “We think it’s time for all of the parties to sit down and negotiate fair and reasonable licensing agreements,” he said.

Unocal received four additional patents between 1997 and 2000 that were an outgrowth of the original research. Williamson said that Unocal’s goal has been to make the gasoline formulations covered under the five patents as widely available as possible, while protecting Unocal’s intellectual property and the interests of its stockholders. Unocal estimates that licenses for the patents would add less than one cent per gallon to the cost of reformulated gasolines nationwide.