Impossible Foods, Inc., the maker behind the popular meatless burger, Impossible Burger, is suing Motif Foodworks over claims of patent infringement. According to claims made by Impossible, Motif violated Impossible’s patent by creating a key ingredient in their meatless products, Hemami.
Motif Foodworks is a spin-off of the biotech company Ginkgo Bioworks. Motif is a much smaller operation valued at roughly $1.25 billion, a fraction of Impossible’s roughly $9.5 billion valuation. After developing their key ingredient, Heme, Impossible dominated the faux meat industry. However, after Motif was able to obtain GRAS approval from the FDA for their production of Hemami, Impossible saw the competition as a violation of their intellectual property.
According to their lawsuit, Impossible alleges that Motif infringed on their patent rights because the startup uses the same heme technology to create their competing line of meatless burgers.
Impossible uses soy leghemoglobin as a beef and pork substitute to create flavors, textures, and aromas to mimic the meat. Their lawsuit claims that Motif uses a similar process that too closely resembles Impossible’s process. Instead of using soy leghemoglobin, Motif uses bovine myoglobin in sourcing Hemami. According to Impossible’s patent, this process is a violation of the patent because it prevents inventing a beef substitute using a heme-containing protein, one sulfur compound, and at least one sugar compound. The patent also protects against the creation of a meat alternative through fat tissue replacement using at least one plant protein and one plant oil.
According to the complaint, the manner in which Motif creates their line of meat products too closely follows the methodology or ‘recipe” that Impossible uses.
The lawsuit contends, “Early in its history, Impossible Foods assembled a team of scientists for an ambitious research investigation: determining which biological molecules make meat look, cook, and taste the way it does. The company discovered that heme, a biological molecule involved in oxygen transport, is a central component of meat’s appeal, leading to meat’s savory flavor and aroma and influencing how meat cooks.”
The complaint goes on to state that Motif marketed their meat-free burger replica and knowingly advertised the use of heme through their website. The complaint goes to include screenshots of marketing materials and explains that “Its website notes that HEMAMI ‘tastes and smells like meat because it uses the same naturally occurring heme protein.’”
Motif has argued against the lawsuit with a spokesperson calling it "nothing more than a baseless attempt by Impossible Foods to stifle competition." The startup plans to fight the complaint.
In a statement shared with CNBC, Impossible stood behind its lawsuit sharing, “We applaud other companies’ efforts to develop compelling plant-based products, but we do not tolerate attempts to undermine our brand or products through the deliberate and unauthorized infringement of our intellectual property.”
