Essential Energy Services Announces Patent Litigation Win and Its 2020 Capital Budget

CALGARY, Alberta, Dec. 19, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Essential Energy Services Ltd. (TSX: ESN) (“Essential” or the “Company”) announces its patent litigation win and its 2020 capital budget.

PATENT LITIGATION WIN
Supreme Court Ruling
On December 19, 2019, the Supreme Court of Canada (the “Supreme Court”) ruled that it will not grant leave to hear an appeal by Packers Plus Energy Services Inc. (“Packers Plus”) of the Federal Court’s judgment in a patent infringement action against Essential. As a result, Packers Plus has no further avenues of recourse against Essential in respect of its patent. “This is fantastic news for Essential,” commented Garnet Amundson, President and Chief Executive Officer. “We have spent over six years fighting this case and are delighted with the Supreme Court’s ruling, allowing us to finally put this behind us. We have always believed that Packers Plus’ case had no merit and so we aggressively defended our position from day one.  We are very pleased that the court has agreed with us every step of the way.  We would also like to thank our legal team at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, namely Tony Prenol, Tony Turco and Santosh Chari.”

Cost Recovery
As previously disclosed, Essential has incurred approximately $5 million in costs since this litigation was commenced in 2013 and it will continue to pursue its recovery of a portion of these costs from Packers Plus. Essential will be seeking costs for the following stages of the litigation:

1. Trial Costs – costs incurred from October 2013 to the end of trial in March 2017.
2. Post-Trial Costs – costs incurred from March 2017 to December 2017 in relation to the quantification of Packers Plus’ claim to damages (this part of the case terminated once the trial judge released his judgment, ruling that the patent was invalid and not infringed).
3. Appeal Costs – costs incurred from December 2017 to April 2019 when the Federal Court of Appeal issued its judgment, dismissing Packers Plus’ appeal from the trial judgment.
4. Supreme Court Costs – costs incurred from June 2019 to December 2019.

On May 10, 2019, the Federal Court of Canada held a hearing on Essential’s motion to quantify its Trial Costs. The decision has not yet been released and the timing of release is unknown. Essential will seek its costs for the other stages in the near future.