WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ordered re-examination of a second of Unocal Corp.'s five patents on reformulated gasoline, which have drawn scrutiny from federal and state regulators, The Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition Tuesday.
The patent office said it is re-examining Unocal's 126 patent, awarded in 1998. Last year, it began a review of Unocal's first gasoline patent, 393, granted in 1994. The office typically initiates reviews of about 400 patents a year, a process that usually takes 12 to 18 months. By contrast, 187,000 patents were issued last year.
Other refiners, including Exxon Mobil Corp., allege that Unocal, worked with state and industry groups in the early 1990s to establish new gasoline standards at the same time it was seeking to patent the blends, allowing it to collect royalties from competitors, who would need to blend the fuel to comply with regulations. Competitors fought Unocal's 393 patent in court, but last year the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge to it, ending six years of litigation. Unocal said it has signed eight licensing pacts and estimates it could reap $75 million to $150 million annually from royalties for all of its gasoline patents, according to The Journal.
Last August, at the urging of ExxonMobil, the Federal Trade Commission began an investigation into how Unocal obtained its patents, which is continuing, and attorneys general from 34 states, including California, have filed motions against the patents in court.
Patent examiners typically call for reviews of granted patents when they learn that something similar allegedly existed before a patent was granted. In the case of the 393 review, patent examiners learned that General Motors Corp. had designed a gasoline blend in the 1970s that shares similar properties to those outlined in Unocal's patent, according to The Journal citing a copy of the patent examiner's application. Also, examiners noted that the Environmental Protection Agency had recognized the connection between lower Reid vapor pressure and reduced gasoline emissions as far back as 1987, though Unocal said it lowered this emissions measure. Together, the findings "raise a substantial new question of patentability," a patent office examiner wrote.
A spokeswoman for the patent office couldn't give the reason for the 126 patent review, according to The Journal report.
The patent office ordered the re-examination last week, just after Unocal sued Valero Energy Corp. in Los Angeles federal court for alleged violations on both the 393 and 126 patents.Valero Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Greehey said in an interview that Valero would fight the suit and focus on Unocal's alleged "misconduct" in the standard-setting meetings. Greehey called the patents "anticonsumer" and said they were "received unlawfully."
