AFFX looking like a short:
Affymetrix Infringed Ed Southern's Microarray Patent
/FROM PR NEWSWIRE GLOBAL DESK 800-682-9599/
TO BUSINESS AND MEDICAL EDITORS:
Affymetrix Infringed Ed Southern's Microarray Patent
OXFORD, England, Nov. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- The following release was issued
today by Oxford Gene Technology:
The US District Court for the District of Delaware today gave judgement in
a patent infringement action brought by Oxford Gene Technology Limited (OGT)
against Affymetrix, Inc (Nasdaq: AFFX). A jury of eight decided today that
Affymetrix's process for making and using its GeneChip arrays infringes OGT's
DNA microarray patent, number US 5,700,637.
The US Court upheld the ruling of the English Court of Appeal delivered
last week that Affymetrix has a licence under OGT's patent from no earlier
than 1 June 1999 by virtue of its purchase of Beckman Coulter's array
business. OGT is seeking to appeal that ruling to the House of Lords. If the
House of Lords reverses the Court of Appeal's decision the US court will apply
the new ruling, so that Affymetrix's infringement will be continuing. The
present position is that OGT can claim substantial damages for the period up
until the licence was transferred to Affymetrix. If the licence is upheld
today's ruling means that Affymetrix will be liable for 10% royalties on their
entire future array sales.
It is significant that the trial revealed that Affymetrix technology is
seriously flawed. Dr. Fodor admitted under oath that Affymetrix products
absolutely do not have discrete cell locations. Dr. Fodor stated that
Affymetrix process is simply not capable of producing discrete cells, unlike
printing processes such as those used by OGT and other licensees that do
produce discrete cell locations. Affymetrix also admitted during the trial
that a defect called "light leakage" from the masks used in Affymetrix's
photolithography process means that the DNA probes on its GeneChip products
are not confined to separate and distinct areas but are scattered all over the
surface. This raises serious questions not only about the effectiveness of
Affymetrix's products, but also about the validity of Affymetrix's own
patents, which claim that their process creates "discrete known regions" on
the array.
OGT holds fundamental patents which recognise Professor Edwin Southern's
pioneering role in the microarray field covering both in situ synthesis and
deposited oligonucleotide probes. OGT wishes to see microarrays used as
widely as possible. OGT does not believe that Affymetrix's microarray patents
are valid to the extent that they claim broad rights over microarrays in
general.
In addition to its licensing activities OGT has established an operational
arm to develop and commercialise its technology and capabilities. OGT has the
fastest, most flexible technology platform currently available for producing
custom-synthesised DNA microarrays. It has a capacity to produce up to
2 million different custom-specified oligonucleotide sequences per day on DNA
microarrays, translating into an ability to investigate about 60 million base
pairs. These flexible microarrays, which can be used in a trial and error
method, are proving to be the research tool of choice in genomic research,
with considerable advantages over other microarray platforms. As well as
empirically optimised probe sets for the conventional microarray applications
of gene expression analysis and genotyping, OGT is finding a large variety of
other uses specific to individual research projects. Its clients include
major companies in the pharmaceutical, biotech, genomic, agricultural and food
sectors.
NUFO short, 44 million unlock today
Fred |
