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GeneCards will be utilized to assist the JPO in the review and approval ofpatent applications in the life sciences area. With this agreement, GeneCardsbecomes an important component in the process of approving relevant biotechpatent applications at the JPO. Patent examiners from the JPO will accessGeneCards to conduct prior art research and help determine if an invention canbe patented. The European Patent Office (EPO) has been using GeneCards under alicense from Xennex since 2005.
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Dr. David Warshawsky, CEO of Xennex, stated: "We are very pleased that theJPO has chosen GeneCards to assist in their work. GeneCards is a very usefultool for professionals dealing with intellectual property in the life sciencesarea, including biotech, pharma, and intellectual property law firms. The EPOhas been using GeneCards very successfully for several years now; with theJPO's licensing of GeneCards, we continue to expand our presence in theintellectual property field. We believe that as the worldwide intellectualproperty arena expands and nations increase their cooperation on intellectualproperty issues, GeneCards will have an important and lasting contribution tothe uniformity required for this cooperative process."
In addition to the intellectual property field, GeneCards is widely usedby hundreds of commercial and academic organizations by thousands of usersaround the globe, including, academic researchers, as well as R&D groups inbiotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.
GeneCards is widely used in Japan, by academic researchers and by severalof the world's leading companies based in Japan. Bioscene will work closelywith Xennex to expand the Japanese market for GeneCards in the R&D andintellectual property fields. "We are very excited about our partnership withBioscene. They are a highly professional and dedicated group, and we work verywell together. We are confident that they will be able to help us increase thepresence of GeneCards in Japan to even higher levels than we have been able toachieve to date, and to grow our business in Japan," stated Dr. Warshawsky.
"Xennex has a very keen sense of what customers want," says David Leangen,President of Bioscene. "In Japan, business is conducted very differently fromin the West, and many Western companies have a hard time adapting. Not onlydoes Xennex provide an excellent range of products that our customers here inJapan are asking for, but they have also shown the insight and flexibility tobe able to adjust to such a new environment. I look forward to a long andsuccessful partnership."
About the Japan Patent Office
The Japan Patent Office (http://www.jpo.go.jp) consists of the GeneralAffairs Department, the Examination Department, the Appeals Department, andother sections and departments. The main functions of these departmentsinclude: 1) granting adequate rights for patents, etc.; 2) drafting plans forIP policies; 3) international exchange and cooperation; 4) review of the IPsystem; and 5) dissemination of information on IP.
About GeneCards(R)
GeneCards is an integrated database of human genes that includesautomatically mined genomic, proteomic, and transcriptomic information, withmajor focus on functional genomics and medical aspects including involvementin diseases. GeneCards offers concise information about the structure andfunction of human genes. It extracts and integrates a carefully selectedsubset of the gene information, obtained from major data sources, public andproprietary, successfully overcoming barriers of data format heterogeneity.GeneCards is unique in its combination of use
