U.S. Court Rules MorphoSys Does Not Infringe Griffiths Patent
MARTINSRIED, Germany, and MUNICH, Germany, March 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- MorphoSys AG (Neuer Markt: MOR), the German biotechnology company, announced today that on March 8, 2002 the District Court in Washington, DC issued a final ruling in its favor in the dispute with Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT) concerning the Griffiths patent (U.S. Patent 5,885,793). According to the court ruling, MorphoSys application of its proprietary HuCAL®(R) antibody libraries does not infringe the claims of the Griffiths patent, thereby giving MorphoSys full freedom to operate with regard to the patent.
In announcing the ruling, the Court focused on the question of whether the MorphoSys HuCAL®(R) antibody libraries are ``derived from humans''. The Court stated ``no reasonable jury could find that the HuCAL® library, whose starting point is theoretical analysis of data, is ''derived from a human``. The Court continued: ''Or, to put it another way, the HuCAL® library is not what the '793 patent claims.`` The ruling upholds an earlier preliminary ruling and an order expressed by the Court in August and December 2001, respectively.
The ruling concludes a Declaratory Judgment Action suit initiated by MorphoSys in April 1999, in order to protect both its U.S. customers and business. By initiating the action, MorphoSys requested a U.S. court confirm its view that (i) the patent is invalid, and (ii) MorphoSys does not infringe it. In March 2001, the factual issues were tried before a jury at the District Court in Washington D.C. However, the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on either validity or infringement issues. Subsequently, both parties requested that the judge presiding over the case rule on several matters of law pertaining to the case. A preliminary ruling issued by the Court on August 17, 2001 stated that ``MorphoSys should prevail on the issue of infringement'', pending further briefings or proceedings. An additional order in favor of MorphoSys occurred on December 21, 2001, when the Court stated its intent to enter partial summary judgement against CAT on their claim of infringement, unless a material fact was presented prior to January 15, 2002. Last week's ruling represents confirmation of this order in MorphoSys' favor. Both parties may appeal the decision at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
``This is more good news for MorphoSys'', stated Dr. Simon Moroney, Chief Executive Officer, MorphoSys AG. ``Our view that we do not infringe this patent has been conclusively upheld today. Moreover, we believe the decision is yet further confirmation of our view that MorphoSys' proprietary HuCAL® technology is independent and distinct from CAT's''.
About MorphoSys:
MorphoSys develops and applies innovative technologies for the production of synthetic antibodies, which accelerate drug discovery and target characterization. Founded in 1992, the Company's proprietary Human Combinatorial Antibody Library (HuCAL®) technology is used by researchers worldwide for human antibody generation. The Company currently has licensing and research collaborations with Bayer (Berkeley, California/USA), Biogen Inc. (Cambridge, Massachusetts/USA), Bristol-Myers Squibb (Wilmington, Delaware/USA), Centocor Inc. (Malvern, Pennsylvania/USA), Eos Biotechnology Inc. (San Francisco, California/USA), GPC Biotech AG (Munich/Germany), Hoffmann-La Roche AG (Basel/Switzerland), ImmunoGen Inc. (Cambridge, Massachusetts/USA), Oridis Biomed GmbH (Graz/Austria), ProChon Biotech Ltd. (Rehovot/Israel), Schering AG (Berlin/Germany) and Xoma Ltd. (Berkeley, California/USA). For further information please visit the corporate website at: morphosys.com /. |
