Benitec initiates RNAi technology patent infringement lawsuit

Australian company Benitec has initiated patent infringement lawsuits in the US District Court for the District of Delaware against Nucleonics, Ambion and Genscript Corporation to protect its gene silencing technologies.

The lawsuit alleges that the three companies are infringing issued US Patent No. 6,573,099, entitled 'Genetic Constructs for Delaying or Repressing the Expression of a Target Gene'.

Benitec's patented technology, known as DNA directed RNA interference (ddRNAi), employs DNA constructs to induce RNA interference (RNAi) in cells. The ddRNAi approach has several potential advantages over alternative gene silencing technologies under development, such as antisense RNA, and synthetic and chemically modified siRNA. These advantages include more versatile delivery options, simultaneous multiple gene disabling, the ability to silence genes in whole organisms (transgenic ddRNAi), and the ability to control the expression and timing of gene silencing.

'We believe Benitec's patent estate is clear and represents an enforceable position in DNA-directed gene silencing,' said John McKinley, chairman and ceo of Benitec. 'We are committed to vigorously defending the rights that our patent estate confers and the licensees of our technology.'

Benitec currently has seven issued patents in five jurisdictions, including the US, UK and Australia, and has more than 60 pending RNAi-based patent applications in advanced stages of prosecution in 14 other jurisdictions. It was the first company to trigger RNAi in human and mammalian cells and in whole mammals and holds the only issued patents covering RNAi in mammalian cells.