But it ain't over: the spin from AFFX . . .
>SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Affymetrix, Inc., (Nasdaq: AFFX - news) announced today that the United States District Court has issued several summary judgment orders in its lawsuit against Incyte Genomics, Inc. (Nasdaq: INCY - news). Summary judgment is a pre-trial proceeding wherein the Court identifies the issues that will go forward to trial.
The Court denied Incyte's motion that Affymetrix Patent No. 5,744,305 ('305) was invalid, rejecting Incyte's argument that ``predefined region'' was not adequately described in the patent's specification. Accordingly, Affymetrix' infringement case under its '305 patent against all of Incyte's microarray products, including its commercial cDNA arrays, is expected to go to trial in April 2002, along with Affymetrix' claims against other Incyte products under Affymetrix Patent No. 5,445,934 ('934).
The Court also ruled that Affymetrix Patent No. 5,800,992 ('992) was invalid based on indefiniteness of certain terms and lack of written description in the specification. Affymetrix is considering an appeal of this ruling.
``Affymetrix has the valid claims it needs under the '305 and '934 to prove that Incyte infringes Affymetrix' patents. We are pleased that the Court affirmed the validity of the '305 patent which also has been strengthened through the interference process,'' said Barbara A. Caulfield, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Affymetrix. ``In addition, Affymetrix is confident that other Affymetrix patents without the questioned terms in the '992 patent will cover the same subject matter. It is also important to note that this case involves only three patents in the Affymetrix patent portfolio, which includes over 130 issued and over 300 pending U.S. patents.''<<
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Cheers, tuck |
