The Patent and Trademark office has issued a preliminary ruling that threatens as much as $300 million a year in revenue for Genentech. Regulators said that one of Genentech's patents awarded in 2001 amounted to double patenting--gaining a second patent for something it had patented earlier. That original patent was scheduled to terminate next March. In this case, the double patent was for making antibodies, a process that garners hundreds of millions a year from other biotech companies who have used the technique in drug discovery. Genentech's stock had dipped on word of the decision yesterday but bounced back after company officials said that any final decision on the issue would be months or even years away.
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