ENGLEWOOD, Colo., May 10, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gevo, Inc. (Nasdaq:GEVO) today announced that it has agreed to temporarily dismiss its lawsuit against Butamax Advanced Biofuels, LLC (Butamax) and E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (DuPont) for infringing one of Gevo's three GIFT® patents, US Patent No. 8,101,808 ( '808 Patent). Gevo maintains all of its other lawsuits against Butamax and DuPont for infringing Gevo's biocatalyst technology.
"When we filed this lawsuit, we expected Butamax to have a commercial biobutanol plant by now. We decided to dismiss the '808 lawsuit, for now, because Butamax doesn't have a commercial plant that infringes the '808 patent and according to DuPont, they will not have a commercial plant by the time of the trial," said Brett Lund, executive vice president and general counsel of Gevo.
At DuPont's May 2, 2013 Analyst Day, a DuPont spokesperson said, "We would expect to start the first conversion in 2015." "Butamax had stated plans to begin commercializing their biobutanol technology in 2010, and now this date has slipped to at least 2015," said Lund. "Accordingly, it makes sense for us to hold off on this litigation for now and, in doing so, we will save significantly in legal costs," continued Lund. "In addition to the '808 patent, we have two additional GIFT® patents that we have not yet asserted against Butamax and we are free to assert these at any time in the future. Additionally, Gevo is maintaining all of its other lawsuits against Butamax and DuPont for infringing our biocatalyst patents including our trial in August 2013 for infringing our '375 and '376 Patents."
About Gevo
Gevo is a leading renewable chemicals and next-generation biofuels company. Gevo's patent-protected, capital-light business model converts existing ethanol plants into biorefineries to make isobutanol. This versatile chemical can be directly integrated into existing chemical and fuel products to deliver environmental and economic benefits. Gevo has executed initial commercial-scale production runs at its isobutanol facility in Luverne, Minn. and has a marquee list of future partners including Coca-Cola, Sasol, and LANXESS, among others. Gevo is committed to a sustainable biobased economy that meets society's needs for plentiful food and clean air and water. For more information, visit www.gevo.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include statements that are not purely statements of historical fact, and can sometimes be identified by our use of terms such as "intend," "expect," "plan," "estimate," "future," "strive" and similar words. These forward-looking statements are made on the basis of the current beliefs, expectations and assumptions of the management of Gevo and are subject to significant risks and uncertainty. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements. All such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise these statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Although the company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, these statements involve many risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from what may be expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements. For a further discussion of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those expressed in these forward-looking statements, as well as risks relating to the business of Gevo in general, see the risk disclosures in the Annual Report on Form 10-K of Gevo for the year ended December 31, 2012, as amended, and in subsequent reports on Form 8-K and other filings made with the SEC by Gevo.