Court Finds In Transocean's Favour Over Patent

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

05 September 2006

Transocean Inc. announced last Thursday that the jury in its patent infringement action against GlobalSantaFe had found in its favour.

The dispute, which was heard in the United States District Court in Houston, Texas, centred on Transocean's dual activity patents.

The jury in the case sustained the validity of Transocean's US patents. The court had previously ruled in late 2005 that GlobalSantaFe's Development Driller I and Development Driller II semisubmersible rigs infringed certain of Transocean's US patents.

Transocean Inc. is the world's largest offshore drilling contractor with a fleet of 83 mobile offshore drilling units.

Additionally last month, it found itself slapped with a $100 million bill for outstanding taxes by the Brazilian tax authorities.

The firm revealed in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that state tax authorities in Rio de Janeiro had assessed an extra $100 million in customs taxes on imported equipment after finding "deficient" record-keeping at a Transocean unit.

Transocean said that it had begun an investigation into the Brazilian claims, but the company believed that the "substantial majority of these assessments are without merit".

"We intend to file an initial response with the Rio de Janeiro tax authorities in September 2006 refuting these additional tax assessments," the company announced.

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