The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says Matthews International Corp. filed the lawsuit Monday against two related firms that claim the process is already patented, BioSafe Engineering and Digestor LLC of Brownsburg, Ind.
Philip Mervis heads the Indiana firms and says the water-based process known as alkaline hydrolysis dehydrates corpses, doing in a few hours what it takes nature decades to accomplish.
Attorneys for Matthews claim the patent isn't valid because the same process was already patented as a means of disposing of other forms of waste.
Mervis says his companies offered to license the patented process to Matthews years ago, but the Pittsburgh company refused.
