USPTO grants Syntroleum’s bid for reexam of key Neste Oil patent

In Louisiana, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office issued an Order granting Syntroleum Corporation’s August 17th request for inter partes reexamination of U.S. Patent No. 8,187,344 and also issued an Office Action rejecting all claims of the patent as obvious in view of the prior art.

The ’344 patent is the subject of a patent suit filed by Neste Oil against Syntroleum on May 29, 2012 in the District of Delaware. The ‘344 patent is related to and shares the same inventors as a prior Neste patent (U.S. Patent No. 7,279,018), and both are directed to a fuel composition for diesel engines.

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