Benitec, Nucleonics other, infectious news
The U.S. Supreme Court denied Nucleonics' request to review a patent infringement suit brought by Benitec, ending the litigation. Nucleonics had wanted the matter adjudicated, even though the suit was dismissed by the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware at Benitec's request because the Supreme Court's 2005 ruling in Merck KGaA v. Integra brought Nucleonics' drug development activities within the safe harbor exemption. Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit twice denied Nucleonics' petition to appeal. Benitec filed the suit in 2004 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware alleging that Nucleonics' RNAi therapeutics infringe Benitec's U.S. Patent No. 6,573,099, which covers the use of DNA constructs to silence genes by inducing double-stranded RNA in cells (see BioCentury, Oct. 10, 2005; Aug. 13, 2007; & July 30, 2007). ...