BioWorld International Correspondent

LONDON - Oxford Gene Technology Ltd. reached a settlement with Affymetrix Inc. in the battle over OGT's DNA microarray patents. The companies agreed to drop all outstanding lawsuits in the U.S. and the UK and end the opposition proceedings against each other's European patents. Financial details were not disclosed.

Andy Millar, CEO of OGT, based in Oxford, UK, told BioWorld International he could not comment on the deal. "We are not releasing any details, but it is a very satisfactory outcome [for OGT]. From OGT's position it is better not to be involved in litigation." The settlement "leaves our way clear to do what we want to do."

The OGT patents are based on the work of Ed Southern, chairman and majority shareholder of OGT, who said, "It is essential for genomic research that these matters have been resolved and that OGT can concentrate on its main objectives of developing its own technology and business and licensing others to do the same."

The original holder of the patents was Oxford University, where Southern did his research. The university granted a license to Beckman Coulter Inc., of Santa Barbara, Calif., in 1991, and Affymetrix claimed it had rights through a technology collaboration with Beckman, signed in July 1998. By this time Southern had gained full control of the patents from the university, and claimed that Beckman's license was not transferable. OGT filed its infringement case in June 1999 and in the same week Affymetrix acquired Beckman's microarray interests.

In addition to contesting Affymetrix's rights to its patents, OGT was trying to get Affymetrix's own microarray patents declared invalid, on the grounds that they make such broad claims over microarrays in general that they would block development of array technology.

OGT's legal actions were funded by Agilent Technologies Inc., the high-tech equipment business spun out of Hewlett-Packard Inc in 2000, which has a license from OGT. OGT has also granted a license to Incyte Genomics Inc.