PreventionGenetics hit with Patent Lawsuit

On Friday, November 02, 2012, Genetic Technologies (plaintiff) recorded a suit against PreventionGenetics (defendant) for patent infringement in the U.S. District Court of Wisconsin (case no. 3:12-cv-00792).

 Genetic Technologies, an Australian company focuses primarily on the testing and evaluation of forensic evidence as it relates to human identification. PreventionGenetics provides clinical DNA testing and banking and genomics services for the medical and research.

The patent US5612179 involved in this suit is currently assigned[1] to Genetic Technologies (Source: MaxVal’s Assignment Database). The patent entitled Intron Sequence Analysis Method for Detection of Adjacent and Remote Locus Alleles as Haplotypes was issued on March 18, 1997 and expires[2] on March 18, 2014. The patent '179 generally relates to methods of analysis of non-coding DNA sequences.

According to the complaint, the defendant provides clinical DNA testing services including CF, Fragile-X, and Factor II Prothrombin. Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is one of the most common single gene disorders and is caused by mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator ("CFTR") gene. Defendant’s analysis of the poly T variation at intron 8 of the CFTR gene allegedly infringes the ‘179 patent.  

The plaintiff has filed suit against the companies listed below:

Company	Case No.	Date Filed	Status
Genetics & IVF Institute	3:12-cv-00724	10/11/2012	Pending
Reprogenetics	2:12-cv-06052	09/26/2012	Pending
Medical Diagnostic Laboratories	3:12-cv-06053	09/26/2012	Pending
Genesis Genetics Institute	2:12-cv-14080	09/13/2012	Pending
Reproductive Genetics Institute	1:12-cv-06857	08/27/2012	Pending
Agilent Technologies	3:12-cv-01616	03/30/2012	Pending
GlaxoSmithKline	1:12-cv-00299	03/29/2012	Pending
Merial	1:12-cv-00396	03/29/2012	Pending
Bristol-Myers Squibb	1:12-cv-00394	03/29/2012	Pending
Pfizer	1:12-cv-00395	03/29/2012	Pending
454 Life Sciences	3:12-cv-00461	03/26/2012	Pending
American Esoteric Laboratories	1:11-cv-00057	01/19/2011	Pending
Beckman Coulter	3:10-cv-00069	02/11/2010	Pending

The following are the suits that are closed: Geneseek (8:12-cv-00120 and 1:12-cv-00795), Agilent Technologies (1:12-cv-00788 and 1:11-cv-01389), GlaxoSmithKline (1:12-cv-00796), Pfizer (1:12-cv-00791), Bristol-Myers Squibb (1:12-cv-00790), Merial (1:12-cv-00792), 454 Life Sciences (1:12-cv-00739), Applera (4:03-cv-01316 and 3:2003cv01316) and Covance (3:03-cv-01315).

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[1]Maxval offers Patent Assignment Alert service where subscribers receive email alerts when assignments relating to target applications, patents or entities of interest are recorded.

[2]Expected expiration date. Patent Term Estimator is a free web-based tool that automatically calculates patent terms and expiration dates for U.S. utility patents.