Tate & Lyle Regulatory News (TATE)

23 Sep 2008 07:00

Tate & Lyle PLC ITC patent infringement case: update Tate & Lyle PLC ("Tate & Lyle") announces that on 22 September 2008 anAdministrative Law Judge at the U.S. International Trade Commission ("ITC") inWashington D.C. gave his initial/preliminary ruling in respect of thepatent-infringement case against certain manufacturers and importers of Chinesesucralose. With the exception of certain non-participating and defaultedDefendants, the Judge did not agree with Tate & Lyle's claims. The Judge'sinitial determination concerning the infringement ruling follows the trialearlier this year. A binding final determination by the full six-personCommission is expected by January 2009. Robert Gibber, General Counsel of Tate & Lyle, said "This is a complex caseinvolving a huge amount of in-depth technical analysis and debate betweenscientific experts. We would not have proceeded with an ITC case unless webelieved we had adequate evidence to demonstrate that our patents are beinginfringed. We intend to petition for an appeal of the decision by the fullCommission." Karl Kramer, President, Tate & Lyle Sucralose said, "Intellectual property isjust one of a number of different layers of protection which define Tate &Lyle's formidable competitive advantage in the global sucralose business. Ourfacilities in the US and Singapore, which operate at a level of cost, efficiencyand environmental stewardship surpassed by none, produce sucralose which meetsthe highest standards of quality, purity and hygiene. Our business is built uponlong-standing relationships with some of the world's leading food, beverage andpharmaceutical manufacturers, as well as the established SPLENDA(R) brand whichis renowned as a high quality, reliable and trusted product in a number ofmarkets." END For more information contact Tate & Lyle PLC: Tim Lodge, Acting Group Finance Director and Director of Investor Relations Tel: 020 7626 6525 or Mobile: 07798 837317 Rowan Adams, Director of Corporate Affairs (Media) Tel: 020 7626 6525 or Mobile: 07713 067542 About Tate & Lyle: Tate & Lyle is a world-leading renewable food and industrial ingredientscompany, serving a global market from over 50 production facilities throughoutthe Americas, Europe and South East Asia. Our efficient, large-scalemanufacturing plants turn agricultural products, corn and cane sugar, intovaluable ingredients for our customers. These ingredients add taste, texture,nutrition and increased functionality to products that millions of people aroundthe world use or consume every day. Tate & Lyle's range of leading branded food ingredients includes SPLENDA(R)Sucralose, PROMITOR(TM) Dietary Fiber, STA-LITE(R) Polydextrose, Tate & LyleFairtrade Sugar and Lyle's Golden Syrup. Tate & Lyle also produces brandedindustrial ingredients including Bio-PDO(TM), Ethylex(R) and STA-Lock(R) paperstarches; and staple ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup, sugar,ethanol, citric acid and basic starches. In addition to providing a wide rangeof ingredients our expert sales and product applications teams support customersby providing technical advice and proprietary consumer insight studies. Tate & Lyle is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol TATE.L.American Depositary Receipts trade under TATYY. In the year to 31 March 2008,Tate & Lyle employed 6,488 people in its subsidiaries and joint ventures, andsales totalled £3.4 billion. http://www.tateandlyle.com. SPLENDA(R) is atrademark of McNeil Nutritionals, LLC Copyright Business Wire 2008