NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Precision BioSciences today announced that it has filed two more patent infringement lawsuits against French firm Cellectis.
The lawsuits were filed in US District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina and allege Cellectis infringes US Patent Nos. 8,119,381 and 8,119,361. The patents relate to Precision Bio's Directed Nuclease Editor genome engineering technology.
Precision Bio is asking the court to bar Cellectis from manufacturing, using, selling, and importing certain engineered meganucleases that infringe the patents. The Research Triangle, NC-based firm is asking for monetary damages and a permanent injunction against Cellectis from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing infringing engineered meganucleases in the US.
In a statement, Matthew Kane, CEO of Precision Bio, said that the company "has worked tirelessly over many years to develop a broad patent estate to protect the important and highly valuable inventions related to our Directed Nuclease Editor genome engineering technology. We will not tolerate the unauthorized and wrongful use and importation of our inventions and materials."
Today's announcement is the latest in an ongoing patent battle between the firms. In October, they filed counter lawsuits against each other alleging infringement of US patents covering modified meganucleases. Even before that, Precision Bio and Cellectis had sued each other over patent issues.
Last month, Precision Bio said that the US Patent and Trademark Office issued a first, non-final Office Action in the reexamination proceedings for US Patent No. 7,897,372, owned by Cellectis. It is claiming Precision Bio infringes the patent.
USPTO rejected every claim of the patent as being anticipated by or obvious in view of prior art, according to Precision Bio.