"OptiGen, LLC has filed a lawsuit arising out of the infringement of two patents related to the genetic testing of dogs for Progressive Rod-Cone Degeneration."

Read more at www.optigen.com

Optigen should have kept their promise to us about lowering the price. They further sealed their fate in my mind when they stopped the monthly 20/20 clinics making it harder for us to get dogs done. At this time, most people are watching their pocket books so saving money is important. With the tens of thousands of Labradors that have been tested, I am sure that Optigen has been repaid for their development of the test. I feel we are simply being taken advantage of. I don't like to be taken advantage of!
I ordered 5 tests from Ingen. I will complete them and send them in next week. I have full faith that this company would not have offered this test if it was not 100% accurate. Many of the dogs I am testing are Clears by parentage. I just want a certificate. This test is $10 cheaper than the one Optigen is offering for dogs that have clear parents.
People stand up for yourselves and your pocket books! You wouldn't knowing let someone steal money from you would you? I am not loyal to someone who tries to corner the market and take more money than they should. Optigen will now have to face consumer scrutiny of why they have not kept their promise to lower the test cost. They have competition now.

While I understand what "Breeder" is saying I also feel strongly that the only "stealing" that seems to have gone on is on the part of Ingen. Breeder seems to feel that Optigen stealing by the statement "You wouldn't knowingly let someone steal from you would you?". When the truth is that whether or not we want to pay for and have an Optigen test is completely up to us. Optigen isn't stealing. However, if Ingen stole their patent that IS STEALING.

I do believe in a free economy though and also agree with Breeder that we are all having to watch our pocket books. I want a good deal just like the next guy so it is certainly hard to pass on a better deal. But if Ingen did steal the patent and Optigen wins this lawsuit I have a feeling Optigen will end up having to go UP on their prices to try to recoup the money they are spending in legal fees. So at the end of the day we may just cut our own throats by using Ingen.

Just something to think about.

That's not all - OptGen may want Royalties for each and every test performed before the ruling and and after the ruling!

They may also demand that Ingen tests not be used in conjunction with anyones dog without paying a fee.

These things can get ugly for the infringer and the user of the product.

Say it ain't so!

I totally agree with "breeder". God forbid Optigen as a company has to lower their pries in order to compete. I mean every other company in the country has to do the same things. I for one am sick and tried of feeling like I am being bent over a barrel to ensure that I am breeding healthy puppies.

Bob, this has nothing to do with companies producing the same product, it is purely Patent Infringement. The laws on the books are there for a purpose and if the courts find that the law was violated, I hope they shut them down.

I hope everyone supports Pawsitive ID and get all your dogs done. I hope we can all support them to help get them money to fight off the villan's frivolous lawsuit. I hope Optigen's lawyers burn thru Optigen's money in lawyers fees and if we dont support them anymore maybe they will see how rediculous they are. What are they going to do next? Optigen comes after the customers?

That's one of the problems with movies and TV today. People watch "Pirates of the Caribbean" and make the PIRATES their heroes!

"I just want a certificate."

What good is a certificate if OFA doesn't recognize it? You may as well print your own.

"this has nothing to do with companies producing the same product, it is purely Patent Infringement. The laws on the books are there for a purpose and if the courts find that the law was violated, I hope they shut them down."


I wish it were this black and white but it's not. Years ago I worked diligently for four years on a project that was hopefully going to cure a few thousand patients with a rare genetic condition through gene therapy. I worked at a small startup company with some brilliant leaders. Once the therapy was to enter human trials a very large company cried patent infringement. Our therapy was 100% thought up by US (I was very much a part of the brain storming and trials and errors and successes) and it was different on a molecular and cellular level than Mr. Big Name Company's methods and results. But alas money talks and even though our small company was backed by millions of dollars we still lose the long drawn out court trial. The company went out of business and those thousands of people are paying a LOT of money to Mr. Big Name Company for treatment due to their monopoly of the treatment.

I for one believe in having more options out there especially if the research is good and the cost is low.

Shame on Optigen for not lowering their prices. The price for their service is ridiculous and I've said that all along - I've done the exact science/methodology and it's not worth that money. It's now easy to see the difference in the prices - Pawsitive ID is charging an appropriate amount of money and offering the same service - not a case of you get what you pay for at all.

"What good is a certificate if OFA doesn't recognize it? You may as well print your own."

What? OFA is not the breeding police. They are a tool and having something other than hips and elbows listed with them is just for breeders to view quickly and for OFA to collect your money. You don't have to list anything with OFA like heart or eye results.

Knowing that your dog is either normal or a carrier for prcd-PRA is all you need to know and having a certificate from another company is just as good as having one from Optigen or having it listed with OFA.

Dropping their prices for services BELOW that of InGen. They would win that way too, and so would we!

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Replying to:

While I understand what "Breeder" is saying I also feel strongly that the only "stealing" that seems to have gone on is on the part of Ingen. Breeder seems to feel that Optigen stealing by the statement "You wouldn't knowingly let someone steal from you would you?". When the truth is that whether or not we want to pay for and have an Optigen test is completely up to us. Optigen isn't stealing. However, if Ingen stole their patent that IS STEALING.

I do believe in a free economy though and also agree with Breeder that we are all having to watch our pocket books. I want a good deal just like the next guy so it is certainly hard to pass on a better deal. But if Ingen did steal the patent and Optigen wins this lawsuit I have a feeling Optigen will end up having to go UP on their prices to try to recoup the money they are spending in legal fees. So at the end of the day we may just cut our own throats by using Ingen.

Just something to think about.

http://www.ingen.bs/news.html

Here is the linky to Ingen's rebuttal to Optigen's lawsuit. I am all for Ingen. Go for the little man. Optigen has made enough money!

OFA is a "tool" but puppy buyers use it too. I remember once researching physicians before making a decision on who I would see and one had a degree from an obscure country, I didn't pick him.

There is no easy solution to the fact that human and animal well being is held hostage by profit margins.
At some point in our world we will have to find a way to be able to move forward with research into all the various issues that effect us ALL with research made open and available to ANY who might find a way to unlock its potential regardless of their ability to pay some inflated value designed to make money for investors, not to actually pay the costs of said research.

I dont need a lecture about how the profits are what keep these companies going, I get it. I just dont like it. I see mega corps being the only ones who can AFFORD to do the research and it all just snowballs.

It angers me to no end that anyone can own such things that can hold the key to life and death for someone else. Science in my idealistic view should be to better the world and the lives of those in it and should be shared.
Certainly we get pretty dicey when we start debating nuclear technology and weapons and sources of power, but the health and well being of living things?

I am all for intellectual property rights, but this is not a song or a poem we are talking about, it is life.
Right now our system is set up all wrong making it only possible for people to do research if they can have a viable market that will make PROFIT.

We are not talking about a market to pay back research costs, but a market to satisfy the investors who would only invest if they saw more dollars in their pockets.

It is so heart breaking to know that out there right now are various research results that if put into the right hands could be the keys to innumerable issues that plague man and beast alike.
How much research is repeated over and over because they are not allowed to use the same research done by XY company causing untold extra years of waiting, not to mention the often unnecessary use of more animal test subjects.
I don't know the answer but some day we human beings are going to have to figure out how to get over the idea that health care is a commodity to sell on the stock market.
In the mean time, don't expect me to feel any sympathy for any company who is exploiting the need for its services based on the research they have done. When they are willing to show the actual costs of the research and give a practical time line and reasonable expectation of when those costs will be paid off I will listen. But being able to charge inflated prices for a process that another lab is showing can be done at a fraction of the cost and still be profitable doesn't work for me.
Annie

"I ordered 5 tests from Ingen. I will complete them and send them in next week. I have full faith that this company would not have offered this test if it was not 100% accurate."

Anyone remember when Healthgene came out with the prcd test for Labradors?

They felt it was as accurate as possible (btw, no test is 100%), charged money for it, and the results ended up not always being the same as Optigen.

They are a reputable company that tried to do something cheaper and they were wrong. Who is to say this other company isn't wrong as well?

Anecdotal data says they have always matched with Optigen's results. Always is a very long time and alot of statistical samples. I think we need more than anecdotal proof before we can say this is so.