Intellectual Property and Licenses
Our success depends in part upon our ability to protect our core technologies and intellectual property. We own significant intellectual property, including patents, patent applications, technology, trade secrets, know-how, copyrights and trademarks in the United States and other countries. Abcam is also licensed under domestic and foreign patents, patent applications, technology, trade secrets, know-how, copyrights and trademarks owned by others. In the aggregate, these intellectual property assets and licenses are of material importance to our business. We believe, however, that no single patent, technology, trademark, intellectual property asset or license is material in relation to Abcam’s business.
Patents
As of December 31, 2022, we owned approximately 71 issued U.S. patents, we had 3 pending U.S. patent applications, we issued 191 foreign patents, and we had 16 pending foreign patent applications.
As of December 31, 2022, we exclusively licensed from MIT, through our acquisition of Firefly Bioworks Inc., five issued U.S. patents and 15 issued foreign patents. We also have non-exclusive patent licenses with the Broad Institute, Inc., ERS Genomics Limited, and Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC, allowing us to use certain patented CRISPR technology to manufacture and sell CRISPR modified cell lines for research use.
Antibodies
Through our acquisition of Epitomics Inc., as of December 31, 2022, we own several patent families related to the generation of antibodies, including, for example: (i) a patent family consisting of six issued U.S. patents related to a fusion partner and the generation of monoclonal rabbit antibodies therefrom. Patents in this family are expected to expire in June 2026, exclusive of possible patent term adjustments or extensions or other forms of exclusivity; (ii) a patent family consisting of one issued U.K. patent, one issued Australian patent, and four pending patent applications in Europe, Canada, China and the United States, related to the method of producing a recombinant allotype specific rabbit monoclonal antibody, with the issued U.K. patent expected to expire in December 2034 and any patents issuing from the pending applications (including a U.K. patent which may be obtained through the pending European application) expected to expire in December 2035, exclusive of possible patent term adjustments or extensions or other forms of exclusivity; and (iii) a patent family consisting of one issued U.S patent and a pending application in Europe, related to methods of generating rabbit monoclonal antibodies by B cell panning and proliferation (without using any fusion partner), with the issued patent and any patents issuing from the pending applications are expected to expire in March 2036, exclusive of possible patent term adjustments or extensions or other forms of exclusivity.
Through our acquisition of AxioMx, Inc., as of December 31, 2022, we own several patent families related to the generation of recombinant antibodies, including, for example, a patent family consisting of two issued U.S. patents, an issued patent in Australia, an issued patent in China and an issued patent in five European countries, together with three pending applications in China, Canada, and Europe, all related to methods and compositions for producing a chimeric polypeptide, such as converting single-chain variable fragment to properly folded immunoglobulin. The issued patents and any patents issuing from the pending applications are expected to expire in June 2036, exclusive of possible patent term adjustments or extensions or other forms of exclusivity.
Assays
Through our acquisition of Firefly Bioworks, Inc., as of December 31, 2022, we have rights to, through ownership and exclusive license, several patent families related to our Fireplex product, consisting of nine issued U.S. patents, one pending U.S. patent application, 45 issued foreign patents, and one pending foreign patent applications, of which five issued U.S. patents and 15 issued foreign patents are exclusively licensed from MIT. The issued patents and any patents issuing from the pending applications in those families are expected to expire between 2026 and 2035, exclusive of possible patent term adjustments or extensions or other forms of exclusivity.
Through the Expedeon Acquisition, as of December 31, 2022, we own two patent families related to the CaptSure technology utilized in our SimpleStep ELISA kits, consisting of four issued U.S. patents, 10 issued foreign patents in France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, and one pending foreign patent application in Europe. The issued patents and any patents issuing from the pending applications in those families are expected to expire between 2030 and 2036, exclusive of possible patent term adjustments or extensions or other forms of exclusivity.
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