Impossible Foods and Motif FoodWorks bury the legal hatchet in IP dispute; Impossible to take over Motif’s heme business

The high-profile legal battle between Impossible Foods and Motif FoodWorks over the use of meaty-tasting heme proteins in plant-based meat has come to a close after two and a half years of costly wrangling over IP.

The dispute began in March 2022 when Impossible Foods filed a lawsuit accusing Motif of infringing patents covering the use of heme proteins in meat alternatives. It has since taken many twists and turns, with Motif at one point accusing Impossible of hiring private investigators to “covertly” obtain info about Motif’s products, something which the court found did not violate rules of professional conduct.

The US Patent Trial and Appeal Board recently invalidated one Impossible Foods patent involved in the lawsuit following a challenge by Motif, but denied requests to review six other patents at issue in the litigation.

Impossible Foods’ flagship heme protein is identical to soy leghemoglobin, a protein found in nodules attached to the roots of nitrogen-fixing plants such as soy; while Motif FoodWorks’ HEMAMI ​​​heme protein is identical to bovine myoglobin, which is found in the muscle tissue of cows. Both are produced via precision fermentation using a genetically engineered strain of​​​ yeast.

Impossible accused Motif of IP theft, while Motif argued that the parties’ proteins were different and that many of the inventions claimed in Impossible Foods’ patents were obvious and disclosed in the prior art.

Impossible to take over Motif’s heme-related business

Under an agreement filed with a court in Delaware today, the warring parties, including Ginkgo Bioworks, which was added as a defendant during the litigation, have agreed to dismiss the case with prejudice (such that it cannot be brought back to court), with “each party to bear its own costs, expenses, and attorneys’ fees.”