UNIVERSITY OF REGINA SUES COMPANIES OVER CO2 CAPTURE TECH

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
3/22/13

The University of Regina has sued two companies over the rights to a carbon capture technology developed at the Saskatchewan institution. In the suit, first reported Monday by CBC News, the university is arguing in provincial court that the companies HTC Purenergy and Doosan have unlawfully claimed the exclusive rights to a post-combustion amine capture technology developed at the University and are not paying royalties. But in court filings seen by GHG Monitor, the two defendant companies said the University gave them exclusive rights to commercialize the technology and that they have done nothing wrong.

CBC News said that the university argued in its November filing that it signed a licensing agreement with the Regina-based HTC in 2005 to help develop and commercialize the unnamed capture technology on a non-exclusive basis and that it had similar contracts with several other companies. But the University alleges that as time passed, HTC and its sub-licensee Doosan claimed exclusive rights and began developing the technology in a way that barred U of R from being able to enter into other commercialization agreements. A University of Regina spokesman was unavailable for comment as of press time.

HTC Claims ‘Exclusive’ Rights

In its counterclaim filed in Saskatchewan court last month, HTC said the license agreement it signed with the University of Regina is “clear and requires no interpretation” in that it grants the company a “worldwide, exclusive royalty bearing license, with the right to grant sublicenses” for the capture material’s intellectual property. The company goes on to explain that beginning in 2009, university officials tried to alter and eventually terminate the agreement, later restricting access to the university’s researchers and test centers, which HTC said was essential to further developing the technology. The company said the university caused “significant damage” due to its “unrelenting efforts to resile from the terms of the conditions of the license agreement which it drew.”

HTC also alleges that the university tried to “disrupt” its business by demanding that it withdraw a technology proposal sent to SaskPower for its Boundary Dam CCS demonstration, resulting in a loss of revenue for the company. It said the University also excluded HTC from other commercial collaborations and withheld technological support for a capture project with the utility Basin Electric Power, an instance that caused the company to lose out on the opportunity for a $100 million agreement with the Department of Energy, HTC said.

Meanwhile, Doosan also filed its own counterclaim with the court earlier this month, disputing a  university claim that it has become “enriched” by its sublicense agreement with HTC since it signed on in 2008. The South Korean-based company said that it has spent millions to date to commercialize the technology through R&D and project proposal costs but that it has yet to make any royalties from the technology since it has yet to be commercialized. Doosan did not respond to a request for comment. The suit is now in its early phases and has yet to go to preliminary mediation, according to an HTC official.