Legal Proceedings

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

Legal Proceedings

Legal Proceedings

11. Legal Proceedings

In September 2011, we filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Santaris Pharma A/S and Santaris Pharma A/S Corp. in the United States District Court of the Southern District of California. Our infringement lawsuit alleges that Santaris’ activities providing antisense drugs and antisense drug discovery services to several pharmaceutical companies infringes U.S. Patent No. 6,326,199, entitled “Gapped 2’ Modified Oligonucleotides” and U.S. Patent No. 6,066,500, entitled “Antisense Modulation of Beta Catenin Expression.”  In the lawsuit we are seeking monetary damages and an injunction enjoining Santaris from conducting or participating in the infringing activities.  In December 2011, Santaris filed an answer to our complaint, denying our allegations, and seeking a declaration from the court that Santaris has not, and does not, infringe the patents we asserted against Santaris in the suit. In January 2012, Santaris filed a motion for summary judgment asking the court to decide as a matter of law that Santaris’ activities do not infringe the patents we assert in the suit.

In January 2012, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corporation in the U.S. District Court of the District of Massachusetts.  Alnylam’s lawsuit alleges Tekmira has infringed a number of issued patents related to siRNA and LNP technologies, including: U.S. Patent No. 7,695,902; U.S. Patent No. 6,858,225; U.S. Patent No. 6,815,432; U.S. Patent No. 6,534,484; U.S. Patent No. 6,586,410; and, U.S. Patent No. 6,858,224. Under Alnylam’s contractual right to enforce Isis’ patent U.S. Patent No. 7,695,902, Alnylam joined us to the suit as a co-plaintiff.