From owner-diagnostics@net.bio.net Sat Jun 03 23:00:00 1995 Newsgroups: bionet.diagnostics Path: biosci!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!sasa.gov.uk!news From: odonnell@sasa.gov.uk (Kevin O'Donnell) Subject: Roche vs Promega Latest Organization: Scottish Agricultural Science Agency Date: Thu, 1 Jun 1995 13:15:57 GMT Message-ID: X-Newsreader: WinVN 0.91.6 Sender: news@jura.sasa.gov.uk (Usenet) Lines: 26 Scientists are getting caught in the cross-fire in the legal battle between Roche and promega over the taq polymerase (used in PCR)patent. Briefly, Promega are trying to get the patent overturned in the US because it is 'prior art' i.e. they maintain that taq had been described previous to the patent being granted to Cetus (who sold it to Roche). The latest thing is that Roche have compiled a list of over 200 US scientists in universities and laboratories who they say have acted illegally. The list seems to consist of people who have published papers in which the source of their taq was Promega. The full list is available on Promega's WWW page (http://www.promega.com) as are more details about the litigation. The European taq patent has been withdrawn, pending further investigation, partly as a result of the Promega action. I should say here that this info is distilled from the Promega press release which may not be the most objective source. I would also like to declare an interest: I am sick and tired of being ripped off by taq prices several times the real cost. Kevin O'Donnell Scottish Agricultural Science Agency Edinburgh Scotland .