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Monday, March 18, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Biotech Firm Can’t|Sue Brits in California

(CN) - A British biotech company's patent cannot be invalidated in California because it did not have sufficient contacts in the state to establish jurisdiction, the Federal Circuit ruled. Autogenomics, a California firm, had challenged the patent of Oxford Gene Technology, which was organized under British and Welsh law.

The patent relates to oligonucleotide microarrays for analysis of polynucleotides.

In 2006, Autogenomics expressed interest in licensing Oxford's technology, but it also raised concerns with the "novelty and obviousness" of the British firm's patent.

Autogenomics argued that it could challenge Oxford's patent in Federal Court in California because Oxford had attended scientific conferences in 2003, 2005, and 2007 in the Golden State.

Judge Moore ruled that the trial court properly found that those conferences did not establish jurisdiction in California.

"Oxford does not have contacts with the forum state that qualify as 'continuous and systematic general business contacts,'" Moore wrote. "Although it is reasonable to infer that Oxford meets potential customers at conferences, it is not reasonable to infer that this means that Oxford's conference booths are 'mobile offices.'"

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