Roche v. Promega
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
Hoffmann-LaRoche and Roche Molecular Systems face trial in San Francisco federal court on claims that their patents for Taq DNA polymerase were obtained through fraud. If the court rules against Roche, the firm "stands to lose control not only over its Taq patents but may lose its critical [polymerase chain reaction] patents as well," Promega says. In 1996, the court ruled that Cetus, the inventor of the Taq patent, made some material omissions in its application to the U.S. Patent Office ("The Gray Sheet" Aug. 19, 1996, I&W-7)