InSphero Granted Hanging Drop Patents in China and Japan

The Patent Office of the People’s Republic of China and the Japan Patent Office granted InSphero full protection of its GravityPLUS hanging-drop technology in January 2014. A decision from the US patent office is expected to follow within the coming months.
InSphero’s core patent WO2010031194 describes multiwell-plates, which allow the generation of hanging drops for 3D cell culture using convenient top loading of the cell suspension. InSphero has commercialized a number of SBS-compatible 3D cell culture plates for spheroid generation, which are based on this patent.

Commenting on this favorable decision for InSphero, CEO Dr. Jan Lichtenberg noted, “We are excited to add patents in these two important marketplaces to our existing patent portfolio for the GravityPLUS technology. These patents further protect the market from imitations of our hanging drop plates, and we hope to secure similar protection in the US market in the near future. We, like our customers, understand the importance of intellectual property in our industry as it protects the efforts and investments made into the creation of new technology.