Silence Therapeutics PLC (LON:SLN) is embroiled in another patent battle with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc., this time in Portugal against its Patisiran product.
In a statement, the AIM-listed drug discovery firm said that it brought the patent infringement proceedings in Portugal yesterday against Alnylam after the US firm on 29 March filed a Declaratory Judgement (DJ) against Silence Therapeutics PLC and its Silence Therapeutics Gmbh subsidiary in the US federal district court in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
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The company added, that regarding Portugal, it has previously stated that it is committed to defending its Intellectual Property (IP) and to secure the appropriate value for this IP it will act to enforce its patent estate as necessary.
The group said the next phase in the Portuguese legal process is that the Court will serve the claim on the defendant. The claim asks the Court to determine whether Patisiran infringes the Silence patent EP 1857547.
Silence Therapeutics said Alnylam DJ action in the US seeks a finding of non-infringement of certain of the UK-listed firm’s patents. It added that the complaint has not yet been served on Silence
The group added that it’s most recently-issued US patents, such as those identified in Silence's updates on August 15, 2017, October 11, 2017, and October 18, 2017, are not named in the lawsuit.
Ali Mortazavi, Silence Therapeutics’ chief executive officer commented: “"We reiterate that we will defend the Silence patent estate where we consider third parties to be infringing the company's patent rights.
“As such, in Portugal we consider this process to be important in recognising the contribution Silence has made to this field. Furthermore, we see Alnylam's filing of a DJ as an acknowledgement of the significance of our patent position."