Worcester, MA, January 31, 2002 – On January 30, 2002, the United States Patent and Trademark Office declared an interference between U.S. Patent 5,945,577, assigned to the University of Massachusetts, and exclusively licensed to Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. (ACT), and a pending United States patent application, U.S. Serial No. 09/650,194, assigned to the Roslin Institute et al., and licensed to Geron Corporation (Nasdaq: GERN). The subject matter of the interference is limited to the use of a proliferating, somatic cell to produce a cloned cow, sheep or pig.
ACT has been granted three other United States patents encompassing the use of proliferating somatic cells to produce cloned non-human embryos, U.S. Patent 6,252,133, 6,235,696 and 6,215,041, which are not involved in this interference. ACT believes that we have a strong position based on our belief that we are the first party to clone a non-human animal using a proliferating somatic donor cell.
Advanced Cell Technology, Inc., is a biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing cloning technology for agriculture and human medicine.
Chad Griffin
Noelle Gambill
(310) 888-3523
www.advancedcell.com