PGS and EMGS Settle Patent Disputes
Two Norwegian seismic players, Electromagnetic Geoservices (EMGS) and Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) have entered into an agreement to settle the two companies’ patent disputes.
In 2013 and 2014, EMGS filed a lawsuit in the UK and Norway against PGS for patent infringement relating to PGS’ Towed Streamer EM technology and EMGS’s “Refracted Wave Patent”
Furthermore, in March 2015, PGS filled a complaint in U.S. Court alleged that the EMGS, by their survey activities in the Gulf of Mexico and on the U.S. outer continental shelf and by their interactions with U.S. customers, infringed PGS-owned patent titled “Detection of Subsurface Resistivity Contrasts with Application to Location of Fluids”.
The disputes have now all been settled through the settlement agreement which grants PGS a license to the EMGS patent for operation of its towed streamer EM system.
EMGS is similarly granted a license to the PGS patent. Both licenses are royalty free and valid world-wide for the validity period of the relevant patent.
The agreement also opens up for joint EM and seismic surveys in the future. Both companies will cover their own legal costs.
