Re: 5,972,619 vs 5,795,716 .
bioway reprinted from the following article:
"SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyseq, Inc. (Nasdaq: HYSQ) today announced that it was issued United States Patent No. 5,972,619 (the '619 patent) which covers methods for identifying a base in a nucleic acid sequence. Upon issuance yesterday of the '619 patent, Hyseq filed a complaint for patent infringement in the United States District Court to allege that Affymetrix, Inc. infringes this newly-issued patent."
I've printed out the abstract below for the HYSEQ patent 5972619. Once again, HYSEQ has been issued a patent that deals with the use of SBH to determine a new & unknown sequence (i.e., using a combinatoric N8-based array of oligos). In fact, the patent deals not with the process, but the computer-methods for analyzing the data and putting it together to determine a de_novo genomic sequence.
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Computer-aided analysis system for sequencing by hybridization
Abstract
The conditions under which oligonucleotide probes hybridize preferentially with entirely complementary and homologous nucleic acid targets are described. Using these hybridization conditions, overlapping oligonucleotide probes associate with a target nucleic acid. Following washes, positive hybridization signals are used to assemble the sequence of a given nucleic acid fragment. Representative target nucleic acids are applied as dots. Up to to 100,000 probes of the type (A,T,C,G)(A,T,C,G)N8(A,T,C,G) are used to determine sequence information by simultaneous hybridization with nucleic acid molecules bound to a filter. Additional hybridization conditions are provided that allow stringent hybridization of 6-10 nucleotide long oligomers which extends the utility of the invention. A computer process determines the information sequence of the target nucleic acid which can include targets with the complexity of mammalian genomes. Sequence generation can be obtained for a large complex mammalian genome in a single process.
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The article goes on: "Hyseq also alleged that Affymetrix' U.S. Patent No. 5,795,716 (the '716 patent) is invalid because the subject matter was first invented and is claimed and covered by Hyseq's '619 patent."
This is kind of tricky. I looked over 5795716 (only briefly), which deals with the use of a computer algorithm to call "unknown bases". However, it isn't clear from the way it is written if the patent is addressing the unknown base in a tiling position of a reference sequence, or the unknown base in an unknown genomic sequence, or (given the way lawyers use the language) perhaps both. It all comes down to the definition of the processes of "de_novo" SBH versus "REsequencing-by-hybe", and how the computer methods are applied to each.
Doctor Goodhybe
relevant URLS:
164.195.100.11
164.195.100.11 |
