EUCLID, Ohio–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Terves today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a final decision confirming dozens of claims in Terves’ U.S. Patent No. 10,329,653 as patentable. The USPTO decision is final and not appealable. The patent covers Terves’ TervAlloy dissolvable metal, which is used to construct fracking tools that can be dissolved inside the well after well completion.

The reexamination sprung from Terves’ ongoing patent lawsuit against an importer of dissolvable magnesium from China, Ecometal Inc. Ecometal’s counsel filed a reexamination petition, arguing that a Chinese patent disclosed Terves’ breakthrough dissolvable magnesium invention first. Ecometal presented the USPTO with hundreds of pages of arguments and expert opinions, urging the USPTO to revoke the Terves’ patent.

The USPTO rejected Ecometal counsel’s evidence. The USPTO agreed entirely with Terves, concluded the Chinese patent was different from Terves’ patented invention, and confirmed in reexamination that the Terves’ patent is valid and was correctly issued.

Terves’ CEO, Andrew Sherman, states “Terves respects and appreciates the USPTO’s ruling confirming our position all along – Terves was the first to invent this game-changing dissolvable magnesium technology.”

Terves is the technology and cost leader in the development, manufacturing and sale of Engineered Response™ smart materials for the oil and gas industry. Terves’ intelligent materials sense and respond to their local wellbore environment to “do more”, such as dissolve, change dimensions, generate force or heat, destroy chemicals or bacteria, bond together, or solubilize and disperse  based on change in time, temperature, pressure, PH, electrostatic charge, or other change in the local environment.

Terves is the leading manufacturer of dissolvable metals and dissolvable elastomers that are used for making frac balls, plugs, slips, seals and several other components used in oil and gas well completion and production; and have been used for completing tens of thousands of stages in North America, Europe, South America, Asia and MENA regions. Terves’ product portfolio also includes highly-engineered specialty proppants, expandable materials, acoustic imaging tools, thermites and structural reactive materials, net-shaped ceramic-metallic (cermet) nanocomposites, and high energy density supercapacitors. Terves is a strong materials science research-based and product-focused organization that works with oil and gas majors, operators, EPCs and OEMs to develop and commercialize compelling technologies, products and capabilities for critical challenges in oil and gas exploration, production and completion operations.