Molecular Devices has announced that the European Patent Office (EPO) has upheld the company's foundational planar patch-clamp patent (EP No 1 040 349 B1) for electrophysiology.
The board will issue a written decision to this effect in the near future.
The ruling will be the final determination of the EPO and cannot be appealed.
Mark Verheyden, president of Molecular Devices, said: 'This planar patch-clamp patent is one of several that are of strategic importance to our automated electrophysiology business.
'The innovation that went into these patents enables the development of next-generation automated electrophysiology platforms, such as the Ionworks Barracuda high-speed automated patch-clamp system,' he added.
The ruling recognises Molecular Devices novel application of using an electric field to position and seal cells for electrophysiological measurement on a planar substrate.
This capability has revolutionised the way pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies screen new chemical entities against ion channel targets implicated in diseases such as hypertension, cardiac arrhythmias, cystic fibrosis, immune disorders and pathological pain.
The European Patent was originally filed with the EPO on 28 July 1998 and granted on 5 September 2001.
Opposition of the patent was filed by a single company on the grounds that particular prior art deprived the patents of novelty or inventiveness.
On 14 April 2010 the EPO found the patent to be novel and inventive with an amended set of method claims.
