Invalidity dossier
US 4683202
Process for amplifying nucleic acid sequences
Current assignee: Hoffmann-La Roche, Inc., Roche Molecular Systems, Inc.
Added 9/23/2026, 10:18:39 PM
Active provider: DeepSeek · deepseek-flash
Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
US4683202A — Process for Amplifying Nucleic Acid Sequences
Title: Process for amplifying nucleic acid sequences
Patent number: US4683202A (also published as US4683202B1 in 1990)
Inventor: Kary B. Mullis
Original assignee: Cetus Corp (Emeryville, CA), assigned 1985-10-25
Current assignee (as listed): Roche Molecular Systems Inc, following recorded reassignments in 1992 and 1997
Application number: US06/791,308
Priority date (as listed): 1985-03-28
Filing date: 1985-10-25
Publication/grant date: 1987-07-28
Legal status (as listed): Expired - Lifetime; anticipated expiration 2005-03-28
Purpose (plain language): The patent concerns a process for amplifying nucleic acid sequences — making many copies of a selected nucleic acid sequence. According to the source text, the prior-art keywords are primer, nucleic acid, sequence, primers, and DNA, indicating the process centers on primers that bind to a nucleic acid sequence and are extended to produce copies. The classifications place it in recombinant DNA technology and, specifically, nucleic acid amplification reactions (C12Q1/6844), including amplification using modified primers or templates (C12Q1/6853). The classification B01L7/52 concerns heating/cooling apparatus for submitting samples to a predetermined sequence of different temperatures, e.g. for treating nucleic acid samples — consistent with a temperature-cycling amplification process.
Scope note: The supplied excerpt contains bibliographic data, classifications, and a family/litigation listing, but not the claims, abstract, or detailed description. The exact claimed scope therefore cannot be quoted from this text.
What the excerpt does not establish: It does not provide claim language, embodiments, or examples; does not establish the legal effect or finality of the listed dates, priority, or status (the source itself labels these as assumptions, not legal conclusions); and does not address validity, enforceability, or the merits of any listed litigation, nor the accuracy of the listed assignees. The excerpt also notes omitted text.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US4683202](/patent/US4683202)/en
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:33:35 PM
Cases on file (2)
Group view →Specific litigation cases in our database that name US patent 4683202. The free-form analysis below may also discuss cases beyond this list.
- Hoffmann-La Roche, Inc. et al. v. Promega Corporationfiled Oct 27, 199293-1748U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Californiajudgment
Defendants: Promega Corporation
- E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. v. Cetus Corporationfiled Aug 1, 1990U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (San Francisco)terminated Feb 27, 1991judgment
Defendants: Cetus Corporation
Other patents asserted: 4683195
Litigation summary
Past and pending lawsuits — plaintiffs, defendants, jurisdictions, outcomes, and notable rulings.
Proceedings on file (0)
All PTAB activity →AIA trial proceedings (IPR / PGR / CBM) filed at the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board against this patent. Sourced from the USPTO Open Data Portal and refreshed every six hours; each proceeding number deep-links to the PTAB E2E docket.
Current assignee: Hoffmann-La Roche, Inc., Roche Molecular Systems, Inc.
No PTAB proceedings on file. This patent has not been challenged via IPR, PGR, or CBM. The absence is itself a signal — well-asserted patents eventually attract IPRs. The LLM analysis below may surface filings the ODP feed hasn’t indexed yet.
PTAB challenges
AIA trial proceedings at the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board — IPR, PGR, and CBM. Petitioners, judge panels, claim-level invalidation outcomes from Final Written Decisions, and Federal Circuit appeals. The single most important defensive datapoint after litigation history.
Assignment history
Inventors, original assignee, and the chain of ownership recorded with the USPTO — including the correspondent attorney who recorded each assignment, since shell-LLC chains often share one repeat-player attorney even when the entity names look unrelated. Surfaces NPE / patent-troll patterns: shell-entity transfers, known asserters in the chain, repeat correspondent fingerprints, pre-litigation assignments, and bankruptcy fire-sales.
Prior art
Earlier patents, publications, and products that may anticipate or render the claims unpatentable.
Obviousness
Combinations of prior art that suggest the claimed invention would have been obvious under 35 U.S.C. § 103.
Extensions
Patent term adjustments, term extensions, continuations, divisionals, family members, and expiration dates.
Derivative works
Defensive disclosure: derivative variations of each claim designed to render future incremental improvements obvious or non-novel.
Keep exploring
More patents asserted by E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.
- US 4683195I'll search for the specific patent number and its litigation history. Let me run more targeted searches on litigation history and current dockets. Let me pull the full claim set and confirm the reexamination/expiration status. US…
- US 4889818I'll run a couple of targeted searches to check current docket/litigation status, then summarize. Let me pull the actual claim set for this patent to ground the claim summary. Let me try to retrieve the actual claim language of the '818…
This patent in court (2)
2 tracked lawsuits name US 4683202.