Sunoco Gas Blending Patent Claims Axed in U.S. Venture Fight

U.S. Venture Inc. convinced a Texas federal judge that part of a Sunoco Partners Marketing & Terminals LP patent covering the blending of butane and gasoline is invalid because it covers subject matter ineligible for patent protection.

Judge Sim Lake in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas found the relevant parts of Sunoco’s U.S. Patent No. 9,207,686 are directed to nothing more than the abstract idea of blending butane and gasoline based on collected data.

And nothing in the patent claims “qualifies as an ‘inventive concept’ sufficient to make the claim patent-eligible,” Sim said in a ...