Chevron Loses Appeal in Patent Battle Over Oil-Measuring Process

Chevron U.S.A. Inc.‘s loss against the University of Wyoming in a proceeding to determine who first invented an oil-measurement procedure was affirmed by the Federal Circuit on Wednesday.

The University of Wyoming Research Corp., doing business as Western Research Institute, owns U.S. Patent No. 8,367,425, covering a means of measuring asphaltene stability in oil. It copied part of the patent from a patent application filed by Chevron U.S.A. Inc. to provoke an interference proceeding at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to determine who first invented the procedure.

The board found the relevant part of WRI’s patent had an ...