Va. inventor claims design for BP well cap stolen

An inventor claims his design was the basis for the cap used to choke off the flow of oil to the Gulf of Mexico nearly three months after BP’s undersea well blew in 2010—and he says it was stolen. Charles Adams of Radford, Va., has filed a federal lawsuit that names as defendants several players who were involved in resolving the disaster. They include Helix Energy Solutions Group, which supplied a rig that helped with the capping mission, and Cameron International, which made the blowout preventer that failed to stop oil from reaching the sea in the first place. BP isn’t named in the suit; it owned the well and was leasing the rig that exploded off Louisiana and touched off the leak. Helix and Cameron officials declined to comment Wednesday on Adams’ suit. Adams says that in May 2010 he designed and captured in conceptual drawings a capping device employing an effective seal. He says he later applied for a patent and began preparing to market the design. He says an engineering firm he contacted violated a nondisclosure agreement and provided his drawings to Helix. The suit alleges that Helix and others subsequently turned to Cameron for its expertise and that Cameron then developed a working model for BP. Read the full story here.