NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Genetic Technologies today said that the US Patent and Trademark Office has granted a request from a company being sued by GTG for a second ex parte re-examination of a patent.
The request from Merial, which GTG is suing for patent infringement, is for re-examination of certain claims of US Patent No. 5,612,179 held by GTG covering non-coding DNA technology. In March, the USPTO affirmed the validity of certain claims of the patent, while others were not re-examined. The new request from Merial is for re-examination of claims 1-18 and 26-32 of the '179 patent, the same claims that the Duluth, Ga.-based company initially requested the USPTO to re-examine last summer.
Merial is one of several defendants in a 2011 lawsuit filed by GTG alleging infringement of the '179 patent. The case is pending in federal court in Delaware.
GTG said today that it "firmly believes that, once again, all relevant claims of the '179 patent will be upheld in the current re-examination. As was the case in all previous challenges, GTG will actively defend this matter in order to have the patent upheld."