A court in Wisconsin has thrown out Onego Bio’s lawsuit against The Every Company in the state for lack of personal jurisdiction. But a parallel lawsuit between the animal-free egg startups will continue in Delaware.
The patent lawsuit between Finnish firm Onego Bio and US startup The Every Company, both of which produce animal-free egg proteins approved for sale stateside, has been dismissed by a judge in the US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. An identical lawsuit is still ongoing in Delaware.
In his ruling, Judge James D Peterson stated that the activities Onego Bio relied on to establish personal jurisdiction are “either unrelated to Wisconsin or unrelated to the patent claims”, adding that it doesn’t hint at other possible links that The Every Co might have with the state.
Further, Onego Bio did not make a “strong enough showing to earn the right to conduct jurisdictional discovery”, and even if it had met that standard, “it would be a waste of time and resources to authorise discovery in this case”, the judge noted.
The decision to dismiss the case in its entirety is a win for The Every Co, whose co-founder and CEO, Arturo Elizondo, said he was “thrilled” with the outcome.
“Lawsuits are a waste of time and money. Our space doesn’t need expensive distractions. Our space needs builders. It needs all of our focus and resources to go towards building a better food system – not expensive litigation,” he said in a statement.
“This ruling is a clear sign that the lawsuit was baseless from the onset. We invested a lot of time and resources to build one of the most extensive IP estates in our industry, including our foundational ovalbumin patents granted in the US, Finland, UK, Germany, and many other jurisdictions. Our customers, our investors, and our team members value what we’ve built, and we will always defend it.”
Maija Itkonen, co-founder and CEO of Onego Bio, said: “Our products are built on a solid foundation and originate from one of the most trusted innovation ecosystems in the world. We believe markets thrive through open competition, where lasting value comes from genuine performance, long-term scientific research, and transparent business practices.
“We also believe in a world where integrity is a core value. One where progress is not achieved by distorting facts, manipulating others’ words, or avoiding responsibility, but by facing situations as they are and addressing them directly and responsibly. The standards we choose to uphold define the system we operate within.
“For that reason, when obstacles arise that risk distorting this balance, we are compelled to act to ensure the market remains open and fair, operating with integrity.”
Why Onego Bio sued The Every Company
Precision fermentation involves inserting a DNA sequence into microbes to teach them to produce specific molecules when fermented. It’s the same way insulin, rennet, and many vitamin supplements are made today.
The two companies in question leverage the technology to produce ovalbumin, the main protein found in egg whites. Onego Bio uses a fungal strain, Trichoderma reesei, to express the protein, while The Every Co engineers Komagataella phaffii (a yeast strain).
The lawsuit was first filed in September 2025, with Onego Bio seeking to invalidate a foundational US patent granted to The Every Co’s expression of ovalbumin in a range of hosts, while also accusing it of fraud.
“We filed this action to protect our ownership and to bring clarity around a recently issued patent that we believe is invalid,” Onego Bio co-founder and CEO Maija Itkonen told Green Queen at the time. “Our intention is not to block progress but to safeguard it. We have deep respect for legitimate intellectual property and value fair competition, which we see as the foundation of a healthy market.”
The firms had been engaged in talks to establish a cross-licensing agreement and had discussed a potential merger. Onego Bio accused The Every Co of demanding “unwarranted patent licensing fees” and threatening its ability to secure investment and expand its business.
As reported by AgFunderNews, the Finnish company alleged that the latter was engaged in tortious interference, telling potential investors that it needed a patent licence or it would be infringing The Every Co’s IP. Onego Bio also accused the US startup of making false claims about the “bioidentical” nature of its protein to ovalbumin.
In response, The Every Co called Onego Bio’s attempt “desperate” and “baseless”, and claimed that the lawsuit was the result of a “months-long effort to harass Every into granting Onego access to Every’s IP”.
Court dismisses Onego Bio’s patent claims in Wisconsin
Onego Bio contended that The Every Co has three types of contacts in Wisconsin: implicit threats to sue the Finnish firm for patent infringement, sales of its products within state borders, and lobbying of US senators from Wisconsin.
The ruling points to Onego Bio’s purchase of land in Jefferson County to build a large-scale facility (slated for a 2028 launch) as its only alleged connection to Wisconsin. “Even if the court assumes that infringement allegations could cause harm to Onego in Wisconsin, it is Every’s contacts with Wisconsin that are important, not Onego’s,” Peterson wrote.
“The problem is that the activities Onego is relying on to establish personal jurisdiction over the patent claims are either unrelated to Wisconsin or unrelated to the patent claims,” the judge added.
Onego Bio’s claims that The Every Co’s products are sold in Wisconsin, meanwhile, “are not important in the context of Onego’s claims for declaratory relief”.
In February this year, Elizondo told Green Queen the company’s ingredient – called OvoPro – is present in products sold at Walmart, Target, Amazon, as well as a growing number of regional bakeries. Residents across the country can purchase these products online.
“Even if the court assumes that Every sells its products to Wisconsin customers, Onego does not explain why that matters for Onego’s patent claims,” the judge ruled, adding that any sales of The Every Co’s products in Wisconsin have “nothing to do with the enforcement or defence” of the patent.
The lobbying claim relates to a joint letter the two companies sent to Wisconsin Senators Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson in July, which sought “continued support of biotechnology and advanced manufacturing in Wisconsin”. They urged the lawmakers to back a Department of Defense initiative under which both companies were awarded funds to build manufacturing facilities.
“A letter to Wisconsin senators may qualify as a contact with Wisconsin, but the letter does not provide a basis for exercising jurisdiction over Onego’s patent claims,” the judge wrote, noting that it doesn’t specifically mention the patent or The Every Co’s IP.
And in some cases, instead of dismissing a case, courts can transfer it to another district court that has jurisdiction. That was deemed unnecessary as Onego Bio has filed the same lawsuit against The Every Co in Delaware, where both companies are incorporated.
“The judge said that his decision is purely jurisdictional. Now that this important procedural first step has been taken, the case is now fully focused in the premier location for IP litigation,” an Onego Bio spokesperson said in a statement.
“As both companies are incorporated in Delaware, each will now be obligated to fully participate in discovery. The case is not finished, but only just beginning,” they noted.
“All of Onego’s claims remain entirely intact and the business of litigating will now begin,” they added. “Furthermore, and as anticipated, significant progress was made in the initial discovery in Wisconsin. Onego learned and confirmed some very important facts which identified strong evidence to support Onego’s claims – all of which are now publicly available and will be used in Delaware.”
Here, personal jurisdiction is not an issue, but Green Queen understands The Every Co has a pending motion to dismiss the case in Delaware for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.
Judge brushes aside Onego Bio’s false marketing accusation on The Every Co in Wisconsin
The Every Co describes its precision-fermented innovation as “real animal protein that is equivalent to the key protein found in a hen’s egg”, calling it “nature-equivalent” and “exactly identical” to ovalbumin.
Onego Bio argued that these statements are misleading, since The Every Co’s proteins are genetically modified and have up to 13 extra amino acids (derived from both egg and yeast proteins). Onego’s lawsuit alleged that the latter is selling falsely advertised products in Wisconsin, citing evidence from its own website, third-party websites, and an article by Green Queen.
“Every’s own websites are not helpful because Every denies that purchases can be made from its websites, and Onego does not allege otherwise,” Peterson wrote. “Onego does not cite evidence or even allege that third-party retailers did in fact make sales to Wisconsin residents and ship Every’s protein there or that Every knew that third parties were selling or marketing its products in Wisconsin.”
The Green Queen story from last November noted that The Every Co’s “egg protein is now featured in a product at all Walmart stores across the US”, but its “customers and the products they use its ingredients in are kept confidential”.
“Having our protein featured in products at the world’s largest retailer is a massive proof point for the entire industry,” Elizondo told this publication at the time.
The judge stated that the story was inadmissible as evidence and didn’t “cite a source for the statement or identify the product at issue”, and that Onego Bio cited no evidence that The Every Co’s ingredient “was, in fact, included in products sold at Walmart stores in Wisconsin”.
“More fundamentally, the article suggests that any products being sold at Walmart do not disclose any affiliation with Every,” the judge wrote, nodding to the confidentiality agreement reported by Green Queen. “Onego cannot show that a Wisconsin consumer’s purchase of a product is related to Onego’s false advertising if the consumer does not even know that it is purchasing an Every product.”
A spokesperson from The Every Co said: “Every appreciates the Court’s careful and well-reasoned decision to dismiss Onego’s lawsuit seeking to invalidate Every’s foundational recombinant egg protein patent. The case should never have been brought, and was a meritless attempt to obtain access to Every’s intellectual property.”
The judge has now closed the case, but the Delaware litigation is still pending. Meanwhile, the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (which Onego Bio spun off from) has challenged one of The Every Co’s patents in Europe.
This story was updated to include statements from Onego Bio and its co-founder and CEO, Maija Itkonen.
