Supreme Court dismisses appeal in Alberta company’s oilpatch technology fight

A long-running court battle over who owns a well-completion technology that helped usher in the shale oil and gas boom in North America has ended.

The Supreme Court of Canada says it will not hear an appeal by Calgary-based Packers Plus Energy Services Inc. of lower court rulings that declared its patent invalid.

READ MORE: Pair of Calgary-based fracking firms report double-digit Q2 revenue declines

Packers Plus had claimed patent infringement in lawsuits against Houston-based Weatherford International and Baker Hughes, along with producer Harvest Operations Corp. and service firms Essential Energy Services and Resource Well Completion Technologies Inc. of Calgary.

Get weekly money news

Get expert insights, Q&A on markets, housing, inflation, and personal finance information delivered to you every Saturday.

Sign up for weekly money newsletter Sign Up

By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

In late 2017, a Federal Court judge ruled Packers’ patent wasn’t valid because the technology was an “obvious” improvement on existing techniques and it had been publicly disclosed before the patent application was filed.

In a news release, Essential Energy Services says it will attempt to recover about $5 million in costs it has incurred since the litigation began in 2013.

Packers’ system, patented in Canada in November 2002, has been used in thousands of wells to control and separate high-pressure injections of liquids and sand used to break up tight underground rock and free the oil and gas, a process called hydraulic fracturing or fracking.

READ MORE: Alberta Energy Regulator restricts fracking near Brazeau dam following earthquake

In court documents it said the technology was invented by Daniel Themig and helped it grow from 30 employees to almost 1,000.

Watch below: Some Global News videos about fracking.

2:04 Fracking likely to blame for earthquake near Sylvan Lake

• Fracking likely to blame for earthquake near Sylvan Lake
• AER orders Vesta Energy to stop fracking ops after Sylvan Lake earthquake
• Fracking and the major role it plays in causing earthquakes in Alberta
• New study links fracking to Western Canada earthquakes
• Business leaders in Sussex express approval of lifting the fracking moratorium
• Indigenous chiefs left ‘blindsided’ by N.B. decision to lift fracking moratorium
• New Brunswick legislators set to vote on partial lifting of fracking moratorium

Previous Video

Next Video