ViaCell: Patent office rejects PharmaStem patent claims

By Elaine Rigoli

Tampa, Fla., May 30 - ViaCell, Inc. said Tuesday that, following a re-examination, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued two new office actions rejecting all of the claims of PharmaStem Therapeutics, Inc.'s U.S. Patent No. 5,192,553 and U.S. Patent No. 6,569,427 as being unpatentable over prior art.

Recently, the Patent and Trademark Office issued initial office actions rejecting all the claims of PharmaStem patents 5,004,681 and 6,461,645.

All of these patents relate to certain aspects of the collection, cryopreservation, storage and use of hematopoietic stem cells from umbilical cord blood and have been asserted against ViaCell and several other defendants by PharmaStem in pending patent infringement cases, according to a news release.

In 2002, PharmaStem brought suit against ViaCell and several other defendants alleging infringement of U.S. Patent Nos. 5,192,553 and 5,004,681.

In 2004, PharmaStem brought a second suit against ViaCell and the other defendants alleging infringement of U.S. Patent Nos. 6,461,645 and 6,569,427.

Separately, the Patent and Trademark Office ordered re-examinations of these four patents based on prior art, the release said.

ViaCell, based in Cambridge, Mass., is a biotechnology company focused on enabling the widespread use of human cells as medicine.

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