Celentis fights for patent

By SIMON COLLINS

AgResearch's commercial arm, Celentis, has gone to an Irish court to get the right to sell a product that allows consumers to trace meat back to the farm it came from.

The costly action against Irish company Identigen follows the breakdown of talks between the two companies over conflicting patents.

Celentis intellectual property general manager Dr Ian Boddy said Identigen's product did not do exactly the same thing as Celentis' easiTrace system, but its Irish patent blocked the NZ company from selling its product.

"The patent applies pretty widely across a group of countries, certainly major countries," he said.

Celentis chief executive Dr Stewart Washer said the action signalled that the NZ company would not be scared of defending its patents anywhere in the world.

He said Celentis saw easiTrace as crucial because it would allow New Zealand producers to prove their innocence if foreign consumers ever claimed that they had contracted a disease from eating New Zealand meat.

The company lodged the action a year ago and has not yet been allocated a hearing. It expects the case to take at least a further year.