Solae Sues ADM, Amerifit for Patent Infringement

ST. LOUIS--The Solae Co. filed suit June 3 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri against Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM) and Amerifit Nutrition. The lawsuit alleges ADM's Novasoy isoflavone products and the Estroven dietary supplements made by Amerifit directly infringe on U.S. patents held by Solae.

"The Solae Co. has spent many years investing in soy isoflavone concentrates and will aggressively defend its associated intellectual property portfolio when it is threatened," said Stephan Tanda, chief executive officer of Solae (www.solae.com). "Our soy isoflavone patents are an extremely valuable corporate asset, and this suit reflects our determination to protect that value."

Solae (formed in a merger of Bunge and DuPont Protein Technologies) holds a number of patents in this area and is the assignee for several patents from Novogen Research in Australia. The patents at issue are No. 6,562,380 (just issued on May 13, 2003), which relates to dietary supplements with isoflavones designed to treat PMS or menopause symptoms, and No. 5,990,291, covering methods of producing soy isoflavones. The court action alleges Amerifit and ADM have each infringed at least one claim on both patents, and has induced others to infringe the patents as well. Solae seeks a permanent injunction on ADM and Amerifit from infringing the patents, and extensive damages and attorneys fees.

An Amerifit spokesperson had no comment regarding the pending litigation, while calls to ADM had not been returned at press time.