Galva Ethanol plant sued for patent infringement

GALVA — A lawsuit has been filed against Big River Resources Galva, LLC — owner of the Galva ethanol plant — but Big River officials say they’re pretty confident their firm won’t be found guilty.

GS CleanTech Corp., a subsidiary of GreenShift Corp., filed a lawsuit Feb. 12 against Big River Resources Galva, LLC and against Big River Resources West Burlington, LLC, a sister company of the Galva ethanol plant based in West Burlington, Iowa. The Galva News learned of the lawsuit last week.

The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, claiming that Big River has infringed on GS CleanTech Corp.’s patent covering corn oil extraction technology.

The complaint alleges that Big River is infringing on U.S. Patent No. 7,601,858, titled “Method of Processing Ethanol Byproducts and Related Subsystems.” The patent covers processes for recovering corn oil by evaporating and mechanically processing thin stillage, a precursor to the distillers grain co-product of ethanol production.

A motion for preliminary injunction was also filed with the complaint. In its motion, GreenShift argues that it has sufficient evidence to prove that Big River is infringing its patented corn oil extraction technology, causing irreparable harm to GreenShift.

GreenShift filed a similar suit against Cardinal Ethanol, LLC, an Indiana firm.

On Feb. 17, ICM Inc., the company from which Big River acquired its oil recovery systems, said it would defend both Big River and Cardinal.

“ICM will defend its customers as a companion matter to ICM’s own litigation against GS CleanTech and its affiliate, GreenShift Corporation, which we filed in Kansas in October 2009,” said Chris Mitchell, ICM vice president of marketing.

Big River CEO Raymond Defenbaugh said April 12 that his company is confident in the case.

“We feel like we’re in safe territory, but should they (courts) decide against us, ICM has signed off to hold Big River harmless,” Defenbaugh said. “They’re covering us completely. If there is any recourse, they’re standing behind it completely.”

source: galesburg