Strict examinations have resulted in drastically shortened life spans for a broad range of biotech 'pioneer' patents in Japan.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Y. Yoshikawa and M. Muramatsu (Tokyo Medical and Dental University) and H. Shimizu and K. Shimmi (Shimizu Patent Office) for providing suggestions and comments. This analysis has been supported by Special Coordination Funds for Promoting Science and Technology (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan).
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Supplementary information
Supplementary Fig. 1
The examinations for pioneer DNA chip patents in Japan are quite strict (PDF 73 kb)
Supplementary Fig. 2
Prolonged examinations for biotechnology pioneer patents take place in Japan (PDF 75 kb)
Supplementary Table 1
Restricted validities of claims for OGT pioneer patents (PDF 74 kb)
Supplementary Table 2
Restricted validities of claims for Affymetrix pioneer patents (PDF 73 kb)
Supplementary Note 1
Claims of OGT's and Affymetrix's patents (PDF 66 kb)
Supplementary Note 2
Struggle between Affymetrix and the JPO (PDF 63 kb)
Supplementary Note 3
Request examination (PDF 58 kb)
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Aida, T., Konishi, A., Hagiwara, M. et al. Shortened life spans of biotech pioneer patents in Japan: a lesson from the DNA chip. Nat Biotechnol 25, 533–535 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0507-533
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0507-533
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