The Carnegie Institution of Washington has filed three lawsuits in the US courts against six companies said to be dealing in lab-grown diamonds alleging that its patents for growing diamonds in a lab are being infringed upon by them, news agency Bloomberg has reported.

The agency said that the institution, which has been doing scientific research for more than a century, and M7D, which licenses the technology, are seeking cash compensation and court orders blocking unauthorized use of two patents.

“Carnegie says its technology uses a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process to control growth from a diamond seed, ‘atom by atom, to the highest purity and quality’,” Bloomberg said.