CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Xennex, Inc. (Xennex) announced today that the Japan Patent Office (JPO) has licensed GeneCards(R). Xennex also announced that it has selected Bioscene Informatics Inc. (Bioscene) as its exclusive partner for the distribution of GeneCards in Japan.
GeneCards will be utilized to assist the JPO in the review and approval of patent applications in the life sciences area. With this agreement, GeneCards becomes an important component in the process of approving relevant biotech patent applications at the JPO. Patent examiners from the JPO will access GeneCards to conduct prior art research and help determine if an invention can be patented. The European Patent Office (EPO) has been using GeneCards under a license from Xennex since 2005.
Dr. David Warshawsky, CEO of Xennex, stated: “We are very pleased that the JPO has chosen GeneCards to assist in their work. GeneCards is a very useful tool for professionals dealing with intellectual property in the life sciences area, including biotech, pharma, and intellectual property law firms. The EPO has been using GeneCards very successfully for several years now; with the JPO’s licensing of GeneCards, we continue to expand our presence in the intellectual property field. We believe that as the worldwide intellectual property arena expands and nations increase their cooperation on intellectual property issues, GeneCards will have an important and lasting contribution to the uniformity required for this cooperative process.”
In addition to the intellectual property field, GeneCards is widely used by hundreds of commercial and academic organizations by thousands of users around the globe, including, academic researchers, as well as R&D groups in biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.
GeneCards is widely used in Japan, by academic researchers and by several of the world’s leading companies based in Japan. Bioscene will work closely with Xennex to expand the Japanese market for GeneCards in the R&D and intellectual property fields. “We are very excited about our partnership with Bioscene. They are a highly professional and dedicated group, and we work very well together. We are confident that they will be able to help us increase the presence of GeneCards in Japan to even higher levels than we have been able to achieve 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 from in the West, and many Western companies have a hard time adapting. Not only does Xennex provide an excellent range of products that our customers here in Japan are asking for, but they have also shown the insight and flexibility to be able to adjust to such a new environment. I look forward to a long and successful partnership.”
About the Japan Patent Office
The Japan Patent Office (http://www.jpo.go.jp) consists of the General Affairs Department, the Examination Department, the Appeals Department, and other sections and departments. The main functions of these departments include: 1) granting adequate rights for patents, etc.; 2) drafting plans for IP policies; 3) international exchange and cooperation; 4) review of the IP system; and 5) dissemination of information on IP.
About GeneCards(R)
GeneCards is an integrated database of human genes that includes automatically mined genomic, proteomic, and transcriptomic information, with major focus on functional genomics and medical aspects including involvement in diseases. GeneCards offers concise information about the structure and function of human genes. It extracts and integrates a carefully selected subset of the gene information, obtained from major data sources, public and proprietary, successfully overcoming barriers of data format heterogeneity. GeneCards is unique in its combination of user-friendly interface, as well as the organization and display of just the right mix of links and detailed information. Data are divided into “fields” such as “Aliases,” “Location,” “Ontologies,” “Expression” and “SNPs,” all searchable by keywords. Since GeneCards employs automatic data mining from dozens of sources, it provides a truly complete summary for each gene. GeneCards(R) (http://www.genecards.org) was developed over the last 10 years by a world-leading bioinformatics team at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.
About Xennex
Xennex, Inc. (http://www.xennexinc.com) is a dynamic privately held company that is dedicated to providing Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical and other life sciences companies, as well as organizations dealing with biotechnology intellectual property, the highest level of services and tools to enhance their gene-based research. Xennex’ products help such organizations to optimize their efforts to develop innovative medical products and services. Xennex operations worldwide are carried out from its offices in Massachusetts, USA.
Xennex’ customers include many of the world leading biotech and pharmaceutical companies and organizations dealing with intellectual property, located in North America, Europe and Japan. Xennex’ products are used in hundreds of commercial and academic organizations by thousands of users around the globe.
About Bioscene
Bioscene Informatics Inc. (http://www.bioscene.co.jp) is a privately held Japanese company dedicated to providing life science professionals useful tools to help them work smarter. In addition to developing its own products, Bioscene assists a selection of Western companies with their expansion into the Japanese market.
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CONTACT: David Warshawsky, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Xennex, Inc.,
+1-617-497-7774, davidw@xennexinc.com; or David Leangen, President of
Bioscene Informatics Inc., +81-78-252-3353, david.leangen@bioscene.co.jp
Web site: http://www.xennexinc.com/
http://www.bioscene.co.jp/
http://www.genecards.org/
http://www.jpo.go.jp/
