Tate & Lyle PLC
Tate & Lyle PLC
ITC patent infringement case: update
Tate & Lyle PLC ("Tate & Lyle") announces that on 22 September 2008 an
Administrative Law Judge at the U.S. International Trade Commission ("ITC") in
Washington D.C. gave his initial/preliminary ruling in respect of the
patent-infringement case against certain manufacturers and importers of Chinese
sucralose. With the exception of certain non-participating and defaulted
Defendants, the Judge did not agree with Tate & Lyle's claims. The Judge's
initial determination concerning the infringement ruling follows the trial
earlier this year. A binding final determination by the full six-person
Commission is expected by January 2009.
Robert Gibber, General Counsel of Tate & Lyle, said "This is a complex case
involving a huge amount of in-depth technical analysis and debate between
scientific experts. We would not have proceeded with an ITC case unless we
believed we had adequate evidence to demonstrate that our patents are being
infringed. We intend to petition for an appeal of the decision by the full
Commission."
Karl Kramer, President, Tate & Lyle Sucralose said, "Intellectual property is
just one of a number of different layers of protection which define Tate &
Lyle's formidable competitive advantage in the global sucralose business. Our
facilities in the US and Singapore, which operate at a level of cost, efficiency
and environmental stewardship surpassed by none, produce sucralose which meets
the highest standards of quality, purity and hygiene. Our business is built upon
long-standing relationships with some of the world's leading food, beverage and
pharmaceutical manufacturers, as well as the established SPLENDA(R) brand which
is renowned as a high quality, reliable and trusted product in a number of
markets."
END
For more information contact Tate & Lyle PLC:
Tim Lodge, Acting Group Finance Director and Director of Investor Relations
Tel: 020 7626 6525 or Mobile: 07798 837317
Rowan Adams, Director of Corporate Affairs (Media)
Tel: 020 7626 6525 or Mobile: 07713 067542
About Tate & Lyle:
Tate & Lyle is a world-leading renewable food and industrial ingredients
company, serving a global market from over 50 production facilities throughout
the Americas, Europe and South East Asia. Our efficient, large-scale
manufacturing plants turn agricultural products, corn and cane sugar, into
valuable ingredients for our customers. These ingredients add taste, texture,
nutrition and increased functionality to products that millions of people around
the world use or consume every day.
Tate & Lyle's range of leading branded food ingredients includes SPLENDA(R)
Sucralose, PROMITOR(TM) Dietary Fiber, STA-LITE(R) Polydextrose, Tate & Lyle
Fairtrade Sugar and Lyle's Golden Syrup. Tate & Lyle also produces branded
industrial ingredients including Bio-PDO(TM), Ethylex(R) and STA-Lock(R) paper
starches; and staple ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup, sugar,
ethanol, citric acid and basic starches. In addition to providing a wide range
of ingredients our expert sales and product applications teams support customers
by providing technical advice and proprietary consumer insight studies.
Tate & Lyle is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol TATE.L.
American Depositary Receipts trade under TATYY. In the year to 31 March 2008,
Tate & Lyle employed 6,488 people in its subsidiaries and joint ventures, and
sales totalled £3.4 billion. http://www.tateandlyle.com. SPLENDA(R) is a
trademark of McNeil Nutritionals, LLC
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