Oxford Gene Technology (OGT) announced a licensing deal with Invitrogen, giving the US company access to one of its Southern array patents, the fundamental patents covering the manufacture and marketing of oligonucleotide microarrays.
The licence will enable Invitrogen of Carlsbad, California to provide DNA-related microarray services worldwide.
The licence will remain valid for the patents’ lifetime. Financial details were not disclosed.
OGT was founded in 1995 to commercialise Southern blotting, a technique developed by Ed Southern, professor of biochemistry at Oxford University. The firm subsequently became embroiled in patent litigation with the US company Affymetrix over licences to the technology that had been granted by Oxford University before OGT was established. That dispute ended in April 2001. In the same year OGT overcame a six-year opposition to the patents in Europe and the company has since pursued a policy of widely licensing of the patents, which cover many of the DNA microarrays on the market.
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