RC,
Thanks for the viewpoint from a lawyers side. How do you see this issue below playing into this situation?
From INCY's January 14th Press Release:
>>>>>>>>
PALO ALTO, Calif., Jan. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Incyte Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: INCY - news) today announced that the United States Patent and
Trademark Office (PTO) has notified Incyte of the patentability of claims directed to two-color hybridization licensed exclusively to Incyte. Separately, in
response to Incyte's request, the PTO examiner has agreed with Incyte that certain claims overlap with those of Patent No. 5,800,992 assigned to
Affymetrix Inc. Therefore, the PTO has recommended that the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences declare an interference.
In September of 1998, Affymetrix filed for a preliminary injunction against Incyte alleging infringement of the '992 patent, which contains the overlapping
claims. If declared, the interference would involve Incyte's two-color hybridization claims and claims of Affymetrix' '992 patent. The overlapping claims
were copied in 1996 by Affymetrix from a published European application licensed exclusively to Incyte, as admitted in documents filed by Affymetrix as
part of the preliminary injunction request.
''We believe that Affymetrix is not entitled to ownership of the two-color hybridization claims that were copied from Incyte's European application and
which are the subject Affymetrix' preliminary injunction motion against Incyte,'' said Lee Bendekgey, General Counsel at Incyte. ''We are confident that a
thorough review by the PTO will result in a determination of proper ownership.''
>>>>>>>>
How does AFFX admission that they copied these claims play into this???
I just wish these two companies would get their heads out of the sand and make nice and just cross license. There is plenty of market for both of them and this proceeding just creates a drag on both companies and does nothing but to line patent lawyers pockets. But, alas, I think we will continue to be treated to a pissing contest.
I agree with you however that the AFFX release seems full of SPIN and the INCY one seems pretty straight forward. I also concur on who has the most to lose here, definitely AFFX as this is what their business is all about. For INCY, this doesn't represent much current business, but a nice potential chunk of future revenue, which I don't think is figured at all in the stock price.
The markets sure seemed to voice an opinion today, both went up, but AFFX also had another deal announced today.
Regardless, thanks for the thoughtful, and thought provoking post.
Rman |
