Thursday March 8, 8:45 pm Eastern Time
Press Release
SOURCE: Maxygen, Inc.
Maxygen Announces Victory in Arbitration With Enchira Biotechnology
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., March 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Maxygen, Inc. (Nasdaq: MAXY - news) today announced that it has prevailed in its binding arbitration with Enchira Biotechnology (Nasdaq: ENBC - news). The arbitrator found that Enchira had breached three separate provisions of the Development and License Agreement entered into by Maxygen and Energy Biosystems (the former name of Enchira) in 1997. The arbitrator found that the gene shuffling technology that Echira calls Rachitt, and claims as its own, ``was derived from Maxygen's technologies and has no notable or significant distinctions from those technologies,'' and that ``Maxygen is the exclusive owner of the gene shuffling technology contained in Rachitt.'' He also found that Enchira had misused Maxygen's Confidential Information. There will now be further arbitration proceedings to determine the remedies Maxygen will receive for Enchira's breaches of the Agreement.
``We have been confident from the outset that we would prevail in this arbitration,'' said Russell Howard, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Maxygen. ``We disclosed our proprietary technologies to Enchira in confidence pursuant to the 1997 Agreement, and Enchira then claimed those technologies as its own in violation of the Agreement. We are very pleased by this decision.''
``Our policy is to monitor the activities of third parties with regard to misuse or infringement of our intellectual property regarding our MolecularBreeding(TM) directed molecular evolution technologies, and to take appropriate action at the time and in the manner that we deem appropriate,'' said Michael Rabson, Ph.D., Maxygen's General Counsel. ``We are committed to vigorously enforcing and defending our intellectual property.''
Maxygen currently owns or has licenses to over 40 issued U.S. patents relating to its MolecularBreeding(TM) directed molecular evolution technologies and to over 450 patent applications filed worldwide. Maxygen is using the technologies covered by this extensive patent portfolio to advance its potential products and those of its partners. Maxygen currently has a pipeline of over 40 potential products, including eight in development. |
