Anan Kasei Co. Ltd & Anor v Molycorp Chemicals & Oxides (Europe) Ltd [2018] EWHC 843 (Pat)
This was a claim for infringement of a patent concerned with a method for producing ceric oxide (also known as ceria). Ceria is used in catalytic applications, particularly as a co-catalyst for purifying vehicle exhaust gas. Molycorp denied infringement and counterclaimed for revocation of the patent on the grounds of: (i) obviousness over an earlier Rhône Poulenc Chimie group (the predecessor of the Rhodia group) patent for the production of mixed oxides including cerium/zirconium mixed oxide, (ii) Kirin-Amgen ambiguity insufficiency (because the meaning of “consisting essentially of ceric oxide” in the claim is truly ambiguous) and (iii) Biogen insufficiency on the basis that the claim covered materials not enabled by the patent. Roger Wyand QC, sitting as a Deputy High Court judge, held the patent to be valid and infringed.
Piers Acland QC and Adam Gamsa were instructed by Bird & Bird for Molycorp.