Olympic Seafood and Aker BioMarine Announce Australian Licensing Agreement

Given the importance of the Australian krill oil market and the strength of Aker BioMarine's recently granted Australian krill oil patents, Olympic Seafood AS has negotiated a long-term non-exclusive licensing agreement with Aker BioMarine.

22 Nov 2012 --- Olympic Seafood AS, the owner of the RIMFROST KRILL COLLECTION, has obtained licenses for important krill oil patents in Australia.

Given the importance of the Australian krill oil market and the strength of Aker BioMarine's recently granted Australian krill oil patents, Olympic Seafood AS has negotiated a long-term non-exclusive licensing agreement with Aker BioMarine. It secures Olympic Seafood's and its affiliates' immediate access to Aker BioMarine’s Australian patent portfolio, including four recently certified innovation patents laying claim to commercially important krill oil compositions and production methods.

“As we reviewed Aker BioMarine’s Australian patent portfolio we found that licensing it was necessary to secure Olympic Seafood’s continued right to offer krill oil in Australia”, says Bjørnar Kleiven, CEO of Olympic Seafood. He adds: “With this license in place, we can now offer RIMFROST SUBLIME Antarctic krill oil, with full freedom to operate in the strong and growing Australian market”.

“Our expectations for the RIMFROST SUBLIME Antarctic krill oil in Australia are high”, says Olympic Seafood’s Sales and Marketing Director Even Remøy. ”This licensing agreement creates stability for our customers as they have a choice of suppliers.” He adds: “Both Aker BioMarine and we are dedicated to developing the Australian krill oil market”.

The patents Olympic Seafood and its affiliates have licensed from Aker BioMarine cover both broadly defined krill oil compositions and a krill oil production processes. The Australian Innovation Patents are particularly difficult to invalidate, which is also why they are dubbed “the strongest patents in the world” by IPR professionals.

Aker BioMarine announced the certification of the four Australian Innovation Patents on November 7th, 2012.

Innovation Patents are a particular patent variety available in Australia only. They provide 8-year protection for inventions that are novel over the prior art, and where the novelty-conferring feature substantially contributes to the function of the invention, but there is no inventive step requirement as for ordinary patents.

Olympic Seafood AS focuses exclusively on Antarctic krill ingredients for consumer applications. The flagship brand, the RIMFROST KRILL COLLECTION is comprised of Antarctic krill meal, powder and oil. Olympic Seafood takes great pride in its specialized krill-collecting vessel, ‘Juvel’, which operates on the Antarctic Ocean. ‘Juvel’ aims for low emissions, low energy use and low climate impact. The proprietary technology on-board allows minimal and rapid processing to safeguard the natural and intrinsic goodness of krill. The vessel is certified by Friend of the Sea and can guarantee 100% traceability.