Singapore: The US patent and trademark office (US PTO) has issued an action reaffirming the validity of certain claims contained in the Genetic Technologies' US Patent No. 5,612,179 (the '179 patent) directed to non-coding deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).

Genetic Technologies announced on July 9, 2012, that it received formal notification from the US PTO about the receival and grant of a request for ex parte re-examination of claims 1-18 and 26-32 of the '179 patent based upon a submission by Merial LLC of Duluth, Georgia, US.

Merial is currently a defendant in an action originally brought by the company in Colorado, US, (as filed during May 2011 in US District Court, for the District of Colorado) for infringement of the '179 patent. That action is currently pending in the Delaware Federal District Court.

In its formal notification to the Genetic Technologies, the USPTO stated that "claims 1-18 and 26-32 of the '179 patent are confirmed and claims 19-25 and 33-36 are not reexamined".

Ms Alison Mew, CEO, Genetic Technologies, said that, "The successful resolution of the re-examination of one of our key patents will once again reinforce the strength of the company's non-coding patent portfolio. With the removal of what some potential licensees have apparently used as a reason to delay settlement discussions, we hope that such negotiations will now resume in earnest, with further licenses to our technology then being granted."