A federal appeals court vacated an adverse judgment against U.S. Water by a district court in a patent infringement case.

The U.S. Court of Appeals overturned a decision by the District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin that patents owned by U.S. Water relating to the use of phytase to reduce deposits in ethanol processing equipment were invalid. As a result, the case will return to the district court for further proceedings.

U.S. Water’s pHytOUT technology was designed to control mineral deposit scaling, reduce back-end fouling and reduce sulfuric acid use. In 2013, the United States Patent Office issued U.S. Patent Nos. 8,415,137 and 8,609,399 relating to pHytOUT deposit control technology.