De Beers group firm initiates legal suit against competitor

The development assumes significance Ila might face damages worth millions of dollars

De Beers’ group company Element Six Technologies Ltd (ESTL), which produces synthetic diamonds, has initiated legal action against its  Singapore-based competitor IIa Technologies (IIa), over alleged infringement of patents  used to make such lab-grown diamond material.

De Beers has been the world’s premier supplier of rough diamonds for many decades.

ESIL says some of its patents for proprietary synthetic diamond products  and their manufacturing methods have been infringed upon by IIa. These are related to production of material which has a combination of high-optical transparency in the visible and infra-red spectral regions and low-crystalline stress.

BATTLING FOR PATENT

• De Beers’ group company Element Six Technologies claims IIa Technologies has infringed patents for synthetic diamonds manufacturing
• Might claim damages in millions of dollars
• Both IIa and De Beers group company Element Six are market leaders in synthetic diamonds
• Might disrupt synthetic diamond supply globally

“To continue to be able to invest in research and development, we depend on our ability to protect the intellectual property resulting from this research, development and innovation,” said Walter Hühn, chief executive officer of ESIL.

In response, IIa Technologies CEO Vishal Mehta told Business Standard, “We believe we are not in any way infringing on Element 6’s claims. In addition, we will challenge the validity of their patents,”

“IIa Technologies has entered its appearance in the High Court in Singapore and will vigorously defend itself. We will keep our company’s focus on the development and growth of diamonds for our customers. We would like to express our appreciation for the customers and partners that have stood by us and re-affirm our continued support to them to build a healthy Grown Diamond eco system worldwide.” said Mehta.

The clash between the two might affect supply of synthetic diamonds, of which India is a large consumer. IIa supplies these in the name of ‘grown diamonds’ to a number of processors in Surat and Mumbai.

Incidentally, the Bharat Diamond Bourse has banned use of synthetic or grown diamonds on its premises.

Synthetic diamond material has many remarkable properties —hardness, high melting point and heat conduction, optical transparency and electrical conduction. Harnessing these and refining the synthesis process has enabled the development of tooling applications in activities such as drilling and mining, as well as emerging applications such as high frequency speakers, radiation sensors, optics, water sanitation and even quantum computing. The vast majority of diamond material used in industry or technology is synthetic in origin.