Appreciate the compliment wrt writing, but I'm a newbie when it comes to patents. I just discovered the 18 month pre-grant rules, in which the application is not published for that long after it is filed unless the applicant requests it. With respect to the patent applications filed that Ciphergen mentioned in the 10-Q, it would appear that they aren't interested in publishing those yet.
I am trying to get a feel for when these multiple biomarker tests might be presented to the FDA. Trials would be quick, wouldn't they? Still, it would be several years from now, at best, before these could be commercialized. Some seem ready for that step when compared to the currently used screening tests.
I noticed an application for Retentate Chromatography, also by Hutchens, and filed the same day as the one concerning difference maps (6,225,047) assigned to Ciphergen. Ciphergen is not the assignee of this one:
20020123043 RETENTATE CHROMATOGRAPHY AND PROTEIN CHIP ARRAYS WITH APPLICATIONS IN BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
What this means, I don't know.
Cheers, Tuck |
