GreenShift appeals judgments regarding corn ethanol patent infringement

In Georgia, GS CleanTech Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of GreenShift Corporation, filed its appeal of intermediate judgments issued in CleanTech’s pending patent litigation against corn ethanol producers for infringement of five of CleanTech’s eleven issued corn oil extraction patents.

As previously announced, CleanTech licensed its corn oil extraction patent portfolio on an exclusive basis to FLUX Carbon LLC (“JVCo”), an 80%-owned subsidiary of Attis, on terms in which CleanTech in essence ‘outsourced’ its operations to JVCo, which the parties agreed to fully capitalize to meet a number of specific objectives, including servicing the continuing and future needs of licensees, investing in growth with the parties’ combined intellectual properties, protecting GreenShift’s intellectual properties, and supporting all pending and future litigation for infringement and related matters.

Following issuance of the first of CleanTech’s patents in 2009, CleanTech licensed its full portfolio of corn oil extraction patents to producers of about 12% of the 15 billion gallons of ethanol produced annually in the U.S. However, CleanTech estimates that upwards of 90% of the dry mill corn ethanol industry practices methods covered by CleanTech’s patents, up from 0% before CleanTech brought its technologies to the market. Five of those patents are the subject of litigation which CleanTech has asserted against about 10% of the industry alleging infringement since 2009.