Tate & Lyle Loses Sucralose Patent Case

The Judge’s initial determination concerning the infringement ruling follows the trial earlier this year. A binding final determination by the full six-person Commission is expected by January 2009.

23/09/08 Tate & Lyle has lost a U.S. patent case against manufacturers and importers of Chinese sucralose. The company said that it would appeal against the preliminary ruling.

Tate & Lyle PLC announced that on 22 September 2008 an Administrative Law Judge at the U.S. International Trade Commission (“ITC”) in Washington D.C. gave his initial/preliminary ruling in respect of the patent-infringement case against certain manufacturers and importers of Chinese sucralose. With the exception of certain non-participating and defaulted Defendants, the Judge did not agree with Tate & Lyle’s claims.

The Judge’s initial determination concerning the infringement ruling follows the trial earlier this year. A binding final determination by the full six-person Commission is expected by January 2009.

Robert Gibber, General Counsel of Tate & Lyle, said “This is a complex case involving a huge amount of in-depth technical analysis and debate between scientific experts. We would not have proceeded with an ITC case unless we believed we had adequate evidence to demonstrate that our patents are being infringed. We intend to petition for an appeal of the decision by the full Commission.”

Karl Kramer, President, Tate & Lyle Sucralose said, “Intellectual property is just one of a number of different layers of protection which define Tate & Lyle’s formidable competitive advantage in the global sucralose business. Our facilities in the US and Singapore, which operate at a level of cost, efficiency and environmental stewardship surpassed by none, produce sucralose which meets the highest standards of quality, purity and hygiene. Our business is built upon long-standing relationships with some of the world’s leading food, beverage and pharmaceutical manufacturers, as well as the established SPLENDA brand which is renowned as a high quality, reliable and trusted product in a number of markets.”

Sucralose generated 148 million pounds ($273 million) of sales for Tate & Lyle in the year ended March 31 and an operating profit of 66 million. This compares with group sales of 3.4 billion pounds and adjusted operating profit of 286 million.

Meanwhile Tate & Lyle has opened its new Health and Wellness Innovation Centre in Villeneuve d’Ascq near Lille.

The state-of-the-art €4 million facility will focus on developing new and innovative ingredients with clinically proven health benefits in the field of weight management, digestive health, vitality and healthy ageing and will include the development of novel applications for Tate & Lyle’s functional food ingredients, Texturants, Sweeteners and ENRICH platforms.

The Centre will also lead Tate & Lyle’s European fibre platform and will specialise in application and development work for SPLENDA Sucralose and CORE™ ingredient solutions, chiefly in the areas of Beverages, Dairy, Bakery and Convenience Food.

The Centre’s laboratories and pilot plant facilities will be open for Tate & Lyle’s customers, supporting them with their innovation projects.

The Centre also deploys Marketing resource to help drive Food and Beverage innovation in the field of Health and Wellness.

Speaking at the opening Dr. Sandra Einerhand, European Director Health & Nutrition said: ”The Innovation Centre will drive research and development of functional ingredients and functional foods. There are a number of top academic institutes with renowned scientists and dynamic organizations such as the Nutrition Health Longevity Cluster in the region, which will help Tate & Lyle to leverage external knowledge to the benefit of our consumers worldwide.

“Working closely with both academic and industrial parties across Europe we will be able to accelerate innovation and build unique science to create new ingredients wanted by the health conscious consumer.”
 
James Blunt, Vice-President Sales & Marketing, commented: “Our research shows that consumers in Europe are becoming more conscious of having a healthy balanced diet. We are confident that this facility will be one of the principal hubs in the industry for the development of health and wellness ingredients across a range of applications.“