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20 July 2016Patents

Asahi and Suntory settle non-alcoholic beer patent row

Japanese breweries Suntory and Asahi have agreed to settle a patent litigation dispute centring on a method for making non-alcoholic beer.

Under the settlement, reached at the Intellectual Property High Court in Japan, Suntory will drop its claim of patent infringement and Asahi will end its calls for a Suntory-owned patent to be invalidated.

Financial details of the agreement have not been released.

The dispute centres on a patent concerning extraction and sugar contents levels in non-alcoholic beer.

In October this year, the Tokyo District Court rejected a request from Suntory for an injunction to stop Asahi from selling its Dry Zero beer.

Suntory, whose product is called All-Free, then appealed against the decision in the Intellectual Property High Court.

Suntory applied for a patent on its beer in May 2013 and it was registered in October that year. The company claimed that Asahi’s Dry Zero, launched in September 2013, infringed the patent.

According to news website Japan Times, Yoshinori Ito, head of research and development at Asahi, said: “We are fully satisfied with the settlement. We will continue to produce and sell Dry Zero as before, without any restrictions.”

Suntory reportedly said the company had decided not to engage in an unnecessary dispute.

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