On June 5, 2015, a three-judge panel at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”), granted a motion to amend in an inter partes review (“IPR”) proceeding, ruling that the patentee Neste Oil Oyj (“Neste”) could amend the claims of U.S. Patent No. 8,278,492 (“the ’492 patent”), and that the new claims were patentable.

BACKGROUND -

On November 22, 2013, REG Synthetic Fuels, LLC (“REG”) filed an IPR petition challenging claims 1-24 of the Neste ’492 patent, on the grounds that the claims were unpatentable over prior art. The Neste patent is directed to a process for the manufacture of diesel range hydrocarbons from bio oils and fats, commonly called “biodiesel.” In particular, the Neste patent discloses a two-step process in which a feed stream of biological origin, diluted with a hydrocarbon, is first hydrodeoxygenated, and then isomerized. One pathway used in this process includes spiking the feed stream with sulfur at specified concentrations.