Published: Friday, September 4, 2009
Inventor sues 3 Northwest universities over patent
BOISE, Idaho — Three Pacific Northwest universities face a federal lawsuit that accuses them of using, without permission, a Canadian inventor’s patented process to build a better yellow mustard seed.
Soheil Sharafabadi, who filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Seattle, says the University of Idaho used his patent to produce new varieties of mustard seed with higher yields.
Washington State University and Oregon State University collaborated with the Idaho university, providing research stations and scientists, according to court documents.
The lawsuit, filed July 23, names all three schools and agricultural suppliers in Idaho, Washington, Montana and California that sell and distribute the mustard seeds Sharafabadi says were developed with his 1990 “Pseudoplastic Yellow Mustard Gum” patent.
“They’re cheating,” he told The Associated Press this week a telephone interview from British Columbia. “I want their recognition that they have used my patent. They are trying to hide it.”
Sharafabadi says his patent helped researchers produce seeds with higher-than-normal levels of mucilage, a sticky, gum-like substance produced naturally by some living organisms. In plants, mucilage promotes water storage and seed germination.
In the late 1990s, the University of Idaho used the process to create a popular variety of mustard seed called “Idagold,” Sharafabadi said. Idagold consistently yielded about 12 percent more than other yellow mustard varieties commonly grown in North America during field trials in the Pacific Northwest, according to a university Web site.
The IdaGold seeds were licensed to Montana Specialty Mills LLC in Great Falls, Mont., and the Pacific Northwest Farmers Cooperative with offices in Idaho and Washington, according to court documents.
“While the University of Idaho doesn’t comment on the specifics of current litigation, we do plan to vigorously defend our research and we expect to prevail,” university spokeswoman Tania Thompson said.
The L.A. Hearne Co. in California and the McKay Seeds Co. in Moses Lake, Wash., also are named.
In his lawsuit, Sharafabadi claims sole proprietary rights to Idagold and more than two dozen other mustard seed varieties he says were developed through his patent.
Sharafabadi, who is originally from Iran, says he has never been employed by any of the three schools.
The patented process begins with boiling dried yellow mustard seeds in 100 Celsius water for about five minutes to produce “Pseudoplastic Yellow Mustard Gum,” substantial amounts of mucilage not available any other way, Sharafabadi says.
Previous methods of extracting the mucilage required boiling the seeds for up to 24 hours and the university adopted his method because it was fast, accurate, reliable and efficient, he claims.
Soheil Sharafabadi, who filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Seattle, says the University of Idaho used his patent to produce new varieties of mustard seed with higher yields.
Washington State University and Oregon State University collaborated with the Idaho university, providing research stations and scientists, according to court documents.
The lawsuit, filed July 23, names all three schools and agricultural suppliers in Idaho, Washington, Montana and California that sell and distribute the mustard seeds Sharafabadi says were developed with his 1990 “Pseudoplastic Yellow Mustard Gum” patent.
“They’re cheating,” he told The Associated Press this week a telephone interview from British Columbia. “I want their recognition that they have used my patent. They are trying to hide it.”
Sharafabadi says his patent helped researchers produce seeds with higher-than-normal levels of mucilage, a sticky, gum-like substance produced naturally by some living organisms. In plants, mucilage promotes water storage and seed germination.
In the late 1990s, the University of Idaho used the process to create a popular variety of mustard seed called “Idagold,” Sharafabadi said. Idagold consistently yielded about 12 percent more than other yellow mustard varieties commonly grown in North America during field trials in the Pacific Northwest, according to a university Web site.
The IdaGold seeds were licensed to Montana Specialty Mills LLC in Great Falls, Mont., and the Pacific Northwest Farmers Cooperative with offices in Idaho and Washington, according to court documents.
“While the University of Idaho doesn’t comment on the specifics of current litigation, we do plan to vigorously defend our research and we expect to prevail,” university spokeswoman Tania Thompson said.
The L.A. Hearne Co. in California and the McKay Seeds Co. in Moses Lake, Wash., also are named.
In his lawsuit, Sharafabadi claims sole proprietary rights to Idagold and more than two dozen other mustard seed varieties he says were developed through his patent.
Sharafabadi, who is originally from Iran, says he has never been employed by any of the three schools.
The patented process begins with boiling dried yellow mustard seeds in 100 Celsius water for about five minutes to produce “Pseudoplastic Yellow Mustard Gum,” substantial amounts of mucilage not available any other way, Sharafabadi says.
Previous methods of extracting the mucilage required boiling the seeds for up to 24 hours and the university adopted his method because it was fast, accurate, reliable and efficient, he claims.
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