!072894 Two reexaminations filed on one biotech patents For some time, there has been a controversy in the biotechnology and agriculture fields over some very broad patents for genetically engineered plants. Some argue that these companies are trying to exert undue control over plant gene lines with these patents. Agracetus has a broad patent on cotton (see below) and is filing patents for soybeans. Calgene has filed patents on the vegetable family including cauliflower, broccoli and kale. One company, Agracetus (Middleton, WI) has two patents, 5159135 and 5004863, that cover genetically engineered cotton and a product process based on their line of cotton seed. Many claim that these patents, especially 5159135, are too broad and should be limited. People are so upset that two reexaminations of 5159135 have been filed with the Patent and Trademark Office, one last winter by a Alexandria law firm on behalf on an anonymous client. The second reexamination of patent 5159135 has been filed this month by the US Department of Agriculture. Originally Agracetus had filed one patent, but had it split in two by the Patent Office, the second of which (the process part) had to be appealed to the Court of Appeals Federal Circuit, before it was allowed. Interestingly, the Department of Agriculture hasn't fully prepared its case. "Perhaps an argument can be made that one of our employees was somehow intimately involved in this", said the USDA attorney who filed for reexamination of Agracetus' patent. "That is an argument we haven't research fully". Attorneys involved with the reexamination expect that it will be overturned on obviousness issues, not prior art, which Agracetus claims that there is none, beyond the work of its own inventors. For more, see an article in the July 1994 issue of Genetic Engineering News. Greg Aharonian Internet Patent News Service