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The Court's decision caps a litigation that has lasted more than threeyears, involving extensive discovery and a lengthy trial, and follows twoimportant interim court rulings in February 2007 and August 2007, both decidedin favor of Artecel's licensor (Pittsburgh) and against Cytori's licensor(UC). Artecel believes the Court's decision was correct, thoroughlyconsidered, and based upon an extensive supporting record of both fact andlaw. The case was heard in the United States District Court for the CentralDistrict of California, and was entitled University of Pittsburgh of theCommonwealth System of Higher Education v. Marc Hedrick, et al (No. CV04-9014CBM (AJWx)). The litigation was to determine who the inventors were in regardto stem cells isolated from adipose tissue: Drs. Katz and Llull, thePittsburgh scientists, or Dr. Hedrick and the UC scientists, or both groups.
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The Court's decision was that only the Pittsburgh scientists were theinventors, and that Dr. Hedrick and the other UC scientists were notinventors. As a result, only Pittsburgh and its exclusive worldwide licensee,Artecel, have rights in the composition-of-matter patent covering stem cellsisolated from adipose tissue. Existing business agreements of Cytori or othersrelating to the US and involving the stem cells derived from adipose tissueare likely to be affected by the Court's decision. In addition, activities byCytori or others to commercialize uses or applications of these adipose stemcells in the US under other patents are also likely to be affected. Otherpatents that relate to uses or applications of the adipose-derived stem cellscannot be practiced or used commercially without rights to the stem cellsthemselves. The stem cells themselves are covered by the patent in which theCourt has ruled that only Pittsburgh and Artecel have rights.
Adipose stem cells are a particularly valuable and useful category ofadult stem cells that are easily sourced from a small amount of a patient'sadipose (fat) tissue. This sourcing is simple, and can be done from the fattissue removed in a liposuction procedure, or done by simply taking a smallsample of a patient's fat tissue. Sourcing of adipose stem cells is notinvasive and painful like the sourcing of a patient's bone marrow for stemcells. The adipose stem cells have been shown, in a rapidly growing body ofpeer reviewed scientific literature, to be quite versatile and able todifferentiate into many different tissue types, including tissues from allthree "germ layers" (the three broad categories of tissues that comprise thewhole human body). The adipose stem cells expand well in culture and arerelatively easy to manufacture and store.
The adipose stem cells were discovered and worked on extensively by Drs.Katz and Llull at Pittsburgh. Dr. Hedrick and the other UC scientistssubsequ
