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Technical Board of Appeal maintains European patent on mutation in breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility gene
Munich, 13 November 2008 - - A Technical Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) has decided that European patent EP 705903 is to be maintained in amended form. Proprietor of the patent is the University of Utah Research Foundation/US.
The patent as granted by the EPO related to the diagnosis of predisposition to breast and ovarian cancer caused by certain mutations of the human BRCA1 gene isolated from the genome. Six oppositions were filed against the patent.
In the first instance opposition proceedings against the patent the opposition division decided that the contested patent could be maintained in amended form. The patent as amended related to a gene probe of a defined composition for the detection of one specific mutation in the breast- and ovarian cancer susceptibility gene and no longer included claims for diagnostic methods. This decision was appealed by the patent proprietor and by three opponents.
Following a public hearing involving all parties to the proceedings, the Technical Board of Appeal - a second-instance judiciary body of the EPO, in this case consisting of three technical members and two legal members - has now decided that the patent can be maintained in a broader form than accepted by the first instance. This broader form now also includes claims for a diagnostic method making use of one specific mutation of the BRCA1 gene.
The ruling of the Board is final and cannot be challenged any further at European level. The full reasons for the decision will be set out in writing and published in due course.
For more information please contact:
Rainer
Osterwalder
Media Relations Directorate
Phone: +4989/2399-1820
Mobile:
+49163/8399527
rosterwalder@epo.org
Note for journalists:
The public hearing concerned European patent EP 705903, "Mutations in the 17q-linked breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility gene", granted on 23 May 2001. Oppositions to this patent have been filed by six parties: the Institut Curie; Assistance publique - Hôpitaux de Paris; the Institut Gustave Roussy; the Vereniging van Stichtingen Klinische Genetica Leiden (NL) et al.; the State of the Netherlands, represented by the Ministry of Health; and Greenpeace Germany.