The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., which is fighting a patent lawsuit by Star Scientific Inc. (STSI).

Star Scientific is a developer of tobacco growing processes that reduce carcinogens in tobacco products. The company sued R.J. Reynolds, a unit of Reynolds American Inc. (RAI), alleging its larger tobacco infringed on patents on tobacco curing processes aimed at lower tobacco specific nitrosamines in tobacco plants.

R.J. Reynolds argued the Federal U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a special federal patent court, had wrongly overturned a federal trial judge's holding that it had not infringed on Star Scientific patents. "The Federal Circuit decision here departs from common sense," the company argued.

-By Mark H. Anderson, Dow Jones Newswires, 202 862-9254; mark.anderson@dowjones.com