Tate & Lyle faced a setback in its fight to defend its sucralose patents when a US judge for the International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled against the company.

The judge did not agree with Tate & Lyle’s claims against various Chinese manufacturers, importers and distributors of sucralose. However, his was just a preliminary ruling and a binding final determination by the full six-person Commission is expected by January 2009.
Robert Gibber, general counsel for Tate & Lyle, said, “This is a complex case involving a huge amount of in-depth technical analysis and debate between scientific experts.
We would not have proceeded with an ITC case unless we believed we had adequate evidence to demonstrate that our patents are being infringed. We intend to petition for an appeal of the decision.”