RNL Bio and Start Licensing Settled Patent Disputes and Concluded a License Agreement

SEOUL, South Korea, Jan. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- RNL Bio Co., Ltd. (Representative Director Jung Chan Ra, www.rnl.co.kr), a Korean company that has pioneered the commercialization of dog-cloning services, and Start Licensing, Inc. of the United States have agreed to dismiss their litigation and have concluded a license agreement as of January 11, 2010. Start Licensing, which started its history in 2005 as the joint venture between Geron Corporation and Exeter Life Sciences, was merged with ViaGen, Inc., the leading global livestock cloning and genomics company, in 2008. Start Licensing manages and licenses a broad portfolio of intellectual property rights related to animal reproductive technologies, including the technology developed and owned by Roslin Institute (Edinburgh) for the cloning of Dolly the sheep (collectively, "Dolly Patents").

Recently, following the court ordered settlement, Start Licensing withdrew the patent suit it filed against RNL Bio for infringement of its foundational somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) cloning technology.  Likewise, RNL Bio withdrew its petition for patent invalidation it had filed against Start Licensing.

According to Mr. Baek-Kyu Lee of Kim & Chang, a law firm representing Start Licensing, and Mr. Young-Mo Kwon of Lee & Ko, a law firm representing RNL Bio, the settlement has changed the relationship between Start Licensing and RNL Bio from that of competitors to global business partners.

It is noteworthy that through this settlement RNL Bio has acquired, in addition to the exclusive rights for the technology for the cloning of dogs from the Snuppy project (collectively, "Snuppy Patents") it has acquired from Seoul National University, the exclusive right to use Dolly Patents (somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) cloning technology) on the non-transgenic dog cloning.  Through the acquisition of such rights, RNL Bio has become the unique entity in the business of providing dog cloning services worldwide.  Not only that RNL Bio has the world-wide exclusive rights for cloning pet dogs and special-purpose dogs such as cancer and narcotic detection dogs, but also it has acquired rights for transgenic dog cloning as well as cloning of endangered species.

Mr. Jung Chan Ra, President of RNL Bio, stated that with the settlement with Start Licensing, the patent dispute, which had been the sole remaining obstacle in the company's efforts to expand dog cloning services to the global market has been completely resolved, and as the world's sole dog-cloning services provider, RNL Bio will expand its services overseas, starting with countries that have the greatest demands such as the United States, Japan, China and Russia.  Mr. Ra also stated that RNL Bio plans to expand its business to cloning of detection dogs, theme park for cloned dogs, and development of improved breeds via transgenic cloning technologies.

In order to meet the growing demands in dog cloning, RNL Bio is currently constructing the world's largest dog cloning research center in Yongin, Kyunggi Do, which is scheduled to open in April 2010.

About Start Licensing

Start is wholly owned subsidiary of ViaGen, Inc. Start manages and licenses a broad portfolio of intellectual property rights related to animal reproductive technologies, including foundational nuclear transfer cloning technology developed at the Roslin Institute for the cloning of Dolly the sheep. Start's licensees are on the cutting edge of research and product development in food production, medical applications and many other fields.

About RNL Bio

RNL Bio is a premier biopharmaceutical company focused on development and commercialization of adult stem cell therapeutics and dog cloning technology. Headquartered in Seoul with state-of-the-art GMP facility, RNL is publicly traded company on the Korea Exchange(Code 003190) and strives to become a global leader across the biomedical industry.

SOURCE RNL Bio