Calgary Herald

Fracking tech patent of Packers Plus invalid: Federal Court

Invention an ‘obvious’ improvemen­t on existing techniques, judge concludes

- DAN HEALING

A long-running dispute over a well completion technology that helped usher in the shale oil and gas boom in North America has resulted in a Canadian court decision declaring invalid a patent held by Packers Plus Energy Services Inc.

In the decision released this week, the Federal Court of Canada says that the Calgary fracking company’s patent isn’t valid because it was an “obvious” improvemen­t on existing techniques and had been publicly disclosed before the patent applicatio­n was filed.

The decision has sweeping implicatio­ns for the oil and gas industry because variations of the technology are used to free oil and gas from tight undergroun­d shale rock formations in resource plays from Texas to northeaste­rn B.C. and around the world.

Judge James O’Reilly struck down patent infringeme­nt lawsuits filed by Packers Plus against defendants including Houstonbas­ed Weatherfor­d Internatio­nal and Baker Hughes, along with producer Harvest Operations Corp. and service firms Essential Energy Services and Resource Well Completion Technologi­es Inc. of Calgary.

“A patentee merits a monopoly only when the claimed invention is truly new, useful and unobvious,” the judge wrote in his decision.

“Packers claims that the claimed invention ... was not obvious because it represente­d a notable advance both over the common general knowledge of skilled persons and the relevant prior art. I disagree with Packers. The claimed method of fracturing ... would have been obvious to skilled persons.”

Packers’ system, patented in Canada in November 2002, is used to control and separate highpressu­re injections of liquids and sand used to break up tight undergroun­d rock and free the oil and gas to be produced from horizontal wells, a process called hydraulic fracturing or fracking.

Packers CEO Dan Themig did not immediatel­y respond to a request for comment.

In an interview two years ago, he said his company had pioneered the system and invested tens of millions of dollars in the technology.

Lawyer David Madsen, a partner with Borden Ladner Gervais LLP who acted for Weatherfor­d and Harvest in the case, said the decision will help oil and gas producers control costs in the field.

“Everyone has their own version of this ... fracking technology so I guess the significan­ce is it is still an open, competitiv­e market and Packers Plus does not have a monopoly on it,” he said. “So that keeps prices down, of course.”

A patentee merits a monopoly only when the claimed invention is truly new, useful and unobvious.

 ?? DAVID MCNEW/ GETTY IMAGES ?? Gas is flared as waste from the Monterey Shale formation near Buttonwill­ow, Calif. The Federal Court struck down patent infringeme­nt lawsuits against firms such as Essential Energy Services and Resource Well Completion Technologi­es Inc. of Calgary.
DAVID MCNEW/ GETTY IMAGES Gas is flared as waste from the Monterey Shale formation near Buttonwill­ow, Calif. The Federal Court struck down patent infringeme­nt lawsuits against firms such as Essential Energy Services and Resource Well Completion Technologi­es Inc. of Calgary.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada