Statoil wins patent case

Offshore staff

The UK Patent Office reached a decision on a SeaBed Logging (SBL) patent ordering the University of Southampton to transfer the patent to Statoil.

Statoil brought the action because the University of Southampton wrongly patented for itself the SeaBed Logging concept, which Statoil developed prior to the University's involvement. The dispute arose out of a Statoil's research project in which personnel from the University of Southampton took part.

SBL exploits differences in resistivity beneath the seabed to identify hydrocarbon-bearing reservoirs with greater accuracy.

07/22/05