ChampionX's US Synthetic Wins Major Court Victory In Patent Dispute

(RTTNews) - ChampionX Corp. (CHX) announced that its subsidiary, US Synthetic Corp., a provider of polycrystalline diamond cutters for oil and gas drilling, has won a significant legal battle. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) has reversed a previous determination by the International Trade Commission (ITC) that deemed the company's patent claims ineligible under the U.S. rule.

The case involves U.S. Patent No. 10508502, which relates to a polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) used in rotary drill bits. The ITC had originally ruled that the patent's claims were directed to an abstract idea, stating that the magnetic properties mentioned were merely side effects of the manufacturing process rather than inherent characteristics of the compound. However, the Federal Circuit found that the claims described a specific composition of matter, highlighting that the magnetic properties provided meaningful insights into the PDC's physical characteristics.