Tate & Lyle Suffer Sweetener Setback

Tate & Lyle, the sugar and sweetener company, suffered a setback late yesterday when the U.S. International Trade Commission upheld an earlier ruling against the British company.  According to Reuters, the ruling confirms a September 2008 decision that Tate had infringed on patents held by certain manufacturers of Chinese sucralose, a zero-calorie sweetener.

This decision will impact Tate as a fifth of their profits come from the sale of sucralose, which is sold under the Splenda brand name.  It’s rumored that the case against the Chinese manufacturers was filed to test Tate’s patents on the sweetner.

After the decision, Tate stated that they will review that ITC’s ruling and evaluate any appeal options.

U.S. Senator: Patent Bill Will Pass

While Congress has recently been receiving  flack for their bailouts of financial institutions, one subject that has been lost in the news is the progress of U.S. patent reform.  In fact, Senator Orrin Hatch predicted that the bill, currently being written, would pass the Senate.  “I think we’re close to it,” he told Reuters.

The bill looks to address the main issues that are currently plaguing the patent system.  First, the new bill will reduce damages paid for infringement, while also making it tougher for plaintiffs to find an infringement-friendly court. 

The bill will also contain language making it tougher to show misconduct in applying for patents.  This portion of the bill would force plaintiffs to find evidence of misconduct to win invalidation of a patent, rather than a simple error in the patent process.  However, the bill does not currently include these clauses.  “They left it out, with the understanding that they are going to work it out,” Hatch said.

When Orrin was asked if the bill would pass this year, the Republican from Utah said, “I think so.  This is the closest we’ve come to really doing this job.  I’d be very shocked (if it didn’t).”

Global Economy Decreasing Trademark Filings

The current economic recession isn’t just impacting patent and trademark filings in the United States, new data has surfaced that shows its slowing the rest of the world’s trademark filings as well.  According to Forbes.com, international filings with the World Intellectual Property Organization increased 5.3% last year.  But, there was a marked slow down in the second half of 2008.

The U.N. intellectual property’s director-general, Francis Gurry, said the following:

Trademarks in general concern new products or new enterprises and in conditions of economic recession you get less of both those two things.  We are experiencing the continuation of that slowdown in the course of this year.

Some more facts from the U.N. intellectual property agency reveal that German companies filed the most trademarks last year, increasing their applications by 2%.  French companies came in second, while U.S. firms came in third even though filings were down 1.5% from the previous year.