WILMINGTON, del. —Gevo probably didn’t infringe on a patent held by Butamax Advanced Biofuels, a joint venture of DuPont and BP, and is free to sell its renewable-fuel products, a judge said in a pretrial ruling. Gevo;s stock surged up to 59 percent.
Butamax sued Englewood-based Gevo, backed by the oil refiner Total SA and specialty-chemicals maker Lanxess AG, in 2011 alleging misuse of technology for genetically engineered microorganisms used to produce biofuels. U.S. District Judge Sue Robinson, in a ruling filed Tuesday, denied Butamax’s request for a preliminary injunction to block Gevo’s fuel sales.
“The court finds it unlikely that plaintiff will prevail on its claim of infringement” at trial, Robinson wrote in a 25- page opinion in federal court. She also said that Gevo “raised a substantial question concerning validity” of two patent claims based on earlier inventions.
Gevo is involved in several patent lawsuits with Wilmington-based Butamax.
