NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Enzo Biochem today said that the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences of the US Patent and Trademark Office has denied Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics' request for a rehearing in a patent interference case with Enzo Life Sciences.
In late February, the USPTO ruled in favor of Enzo in a patent interference proceeding involving Enzo's patent application for nucleic acid signal amplification and US Patent No. 5,124,246, which was held by Bayer and is now held by Siemens following Siemens' acquisition of Bayer's diagnostics business in 2006. The Siemens patent covers branched DNA diagnostic systems.
Enzo said that, subject to any appeals that Siemens might file in federal court, Enzo will receive a full 17-year patent for all the inventions covered by the claim, commencing on the date of the patent’s issuance.
"This technology is the basis for a number of significant products in clinical diagnostics and in the life sciences field which currently are marketed or licensed by various commercial entities," Elazar Rabbani, chairman and CEO of Enzo, said in a statement. "Additionally, we plan to expand the application of this key technology beyond the scope of gene-based applications into the field of immunodiagnostics."