Statement Regarding Recent Claims by Genetic Technologies Limited
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Genetic Technologies Limited (“GTG”) has recently asserted royalty demands and infringement claims related to, among other things, Promega’s STR technology and its PowerPlex® kits specifically. Promega is confident that its PowerPlex® kits do not infringe as alleged by GTG, and has prepared the following statement for the benefit of Promega’s customers who may become targets of such claims:
GTG’s Patent No. 5,612,179 claims amplification and analysis of non-coding region sequence variations for detection of at least one coding region allele of a multi-allelic genetic locus. The PowerPlex® kits are not used for detection of coding region alleles. Therefore, the PowerPlex® kits do not infringe the ‘179 patent.
Specifically, the amelogenin non-coding sequence variation detected by PowerPlex® is detected in introns of the amelogenin gene and is used to identify the gender of the person providing the test sample. Results generated by the kit, when conducted according to Promega’s Technical Manual, offer no information about the coding sequence of the amelogenin gene.
That said, GTG has been asserting claims based on other allegedly infringing tests, none of which is related to any Promega product. Therefore, we recommend that concerned parties independently determine whether and how these tests relate to the asserted GTG patents.