Arbitrator’s Ruling: Bad Faith and Costly Consequences
Renmatix’s woes stem from a 2017 arbitration initiated against UPM over alleged misuse of trade secrets related to the biotech company’s proprietary Plantrose process—a technology designed to produce sugars for the renewable chemical and fuel industries.
The companies had signed a joint development agreement in 2013 to explore commercialization of the Plantrose process. A second agreement, signed later that year, sought to improve specific steps of the technology. Under the terms, Renmatix retained ownership of any inventions stemming from the collaboration and had exclusive rights to patent applications.
However, the company later discovered that UPM had filed multiple patents it claimed were based on its confidential trade secrets. Renmatix accused UPM of intellectual property theft and pursued arbitration before the American Arbitration Association (AAA).
The ruling, however, turned the tables. Arbitrator Colen found that Renmatix had brought its claims in bad faith, ultimately ordering the company to pay nearly $4 million in attorney fees to UPM. The award was meant to compensate UPM for “the extensive time, effort, and work that UPM’s counsel was required to undertake” in response to Renmatix’s claims.
