IP Protections
Intellectual Property
In 2004, AspenBio began building an intellectual property portfolio for the human appendicitis testing technology and products. The Company has filed for worldwide patent coverage related to several aspects of the initial discovery and various test applications. During early 2006, our U.S. and international patent applications entitled “Methods and devices for diagnosis of appendicitis” were published by the United States Patent Office and the International Bureau of the World International Patent Organization. We also recently filed a further separate patent application seeking to expand the worldwide position of intellectual property protection associated with this technology (see below)
Further enhancement and expansion of the proprietary patent position is ongoing with respect to the scope of protection for the Company’s first generation and future generation versions of tests. Strong scientific and technical progress remains the basis for these innovative efforts
To provide further summary information the patent portfolio for the human AppyScore /AppyScreen appendicitis diagnostic technologies has recently been expanded primarily in two dimensions. In the first dimension, the platform patent position has progressed towards strategic worldwide coverage. Based on earlier U.S. and Patent Cooperation Treaty International patent applications, intellectual property rights are being widely pursued in over 60 selected countries and markets by entering the national or regional phase of activity. In a second dimension, through a new patent application filing, the Company has established a position on improvements and variations in the technology. These additional directions relate in part to the unique ability for the blood-based biomarker tests to assist not only in diagnosing the presence or absence of appendicitis, but also in assessing more precisely and accurately the clinical grade of appendicitis condition. These improvements are designed to significantly enhance the quality of triage and increase the speed of making clinically relevant diagnostic information available. These developments also offer substantially reduced total costs in comparison with nuclear medicine and imaging while reducing the risk of ionizing radiation exposure to the patient.
We have not filed patents for all of our human diagnostic antigens, although we consider our protein purification process proprietary. This purification expertise, knowledge and processes are kept as trade secrets. We have filed for patent applications on a number of our technologies. As a matter of general practice we pursue patent coverage on technology and developments we believe can be suitably protected in this manner.
Under the exclusive license agreement with Washington University (St. Louis, MO), we have obtained intellectual property rights to their patent estate consisting of approximately 83 active and inactive patents and patents pending. The term of the agreement is tied to the life of the last patent to expire, which, given the fact that there are a number of patents pending, we expect to be at least 20 years. We are currently developing and testing products using the Washington University patents rights in the bovine and equine areas and expect to develop products for a number of other species as well.
With respect to SurBred™ (open cow test), we entered into exclusive licensing agreements with the University of Idaho and the University of Wyoming in fall, 2001, for the manufacture, use, sale and distribution of the marker used in the test and have applied for federal trademark protection in the United States.
