Y E A R NEWS REVIEW IN
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Trade-Secret Struggles Abound
PUBLISHING
ACS Central Science will be the society’s first open-access journal
China figured prominently in two theft accusations
Submissions are now open for ACS’s first open-access journal, ACS Central Science. The online, peer-reviewed publication will launch in early 2015. It will highlight research from a broad spectrum of chemistry and interdisciplinary sciences. Carolyn R. Bertozzi, a professor of chemistry and of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, has been named the inaugural editor. Manuscripts can be submitted at pubs.acs.org/centralscience.—LINDA WANG
DRUG DISCOVERY
Structure Error Caused Cancer Drug Mix-Up An old mistake led two companies to pursue development and patenting of the same promising anticancer compound
The error originated when chemists misassigned TIC10’s structure when it was first synthesized in the 1970s. The molecule ended up in a publicly available National Cancer Institute (NCI) library of chemical compounds—and researchers working with the compound, including those at Penn State, took for granted the A long-standing chemical strucstructure was correct. Janda and his ture error threatened the validity colleagues synthesized the library O of a patent on an anticancer drug structure but found it to be N N candidate about to enter human biologically inactive. When clinical trials this year. they obtained a sample from N N The compound, called TRAIL-inNCI, which was bioactive, ducing compound 10 (TIC10), is being dethe researchers investigated veloped under the identifier ONC201 by further and discovered the the biotech firm Oncoceutics, structural discrepancy. which licensed the patent for Oncoceutics believes the it (US 8673923) from Pennstructural mistake is irrelevant O sylvania State University. to its licensed patent, whereas But Kim D. Janda and coworkScripps believes the error N N ers at Scripps Research Instiputs that patent on shaky N tute, in La Jolla, Calif., discovered ground. Patent attorneys N this year that the reported strucC&EN asked to comment Misassigned (top) ture of the compound on which on the controversy generally and corrected the patent is based is wrong consider Oncoceutics to hold structures (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, DOI: (bottom) the upper hand. Meanwhile, of bioactive TIC10. 10.1002/anie.201402133). Oncoceutics is moving forward Scripps subsequently applied as if nothing had happened, for a patent on TIC10 using the correct receiving government and private founstructure and has licensed it to another dation research grants and closing on a company, Sorrento Therapeutics. In effect, private-investor funding round to support both companies are claiming the same moldevelopment of ONC201 and its analogs. ecule with the intent of developing it into a Sorrento has not yet announced its plans commercial drug. for TIC10.—STU BORMAN CEN.ACS.ORG
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DECEMBER 22, 2014
Where there’s technology, there’s technology theft—and 2014 was no exception. In March, the Switzerland-based chemical maker Ineos, whose technology is used in 90% of acrylonitrile plants worldwide, accused China’s Sinopec of misusing its trade secrets to make the acrylics intermediate. Governmentowned Sinopec denied the allegation. Although Ineos claimed it has a “good and valuable” relationship with Sinopec, Chairman Jim Ratcliffe asserted that “unless we protect our intellectual property, ultimately we will see the demise of Ineos.” Chinese nationals were also fingered in a trade-secret theft case when a U.S. federal grand jury accused seven employees of Dabeinong Technology Group, a Beijing-based agricultural conglomerate, of stealing hybrid corn seed technology. The July indictment claimed the Dabeinong employees tried to smuggle seed lines containing gene-modified and plant-bred traits from DuPont and Monsanto test fields back to China in microwave popcorn boxes. Concerned over secrets stolen from companies for the benefit of foreign competitors, the U.S. Senate began to consider legislation called the Defend Trade Secrets Act (S. 2267). Announced in May and still pending, the bill would make it easier for companies to sue for data theft in federal court. Several other trade-secret disputes during the year involved employees accused of theft by their employers. In April, Ineos filed suit in a Texas state court charging that electrical engineer Robert Trajkovski used confidential business process information in a book he planned to publish. A former W. L. Gore & Associates employee, chemical engineer Kwang Seoung Jeon, was arrested in April on charges that he stole trade secrets from the fluorochemistry expert. Jeon, who worked on camouflage fabrics, was nabbed just before he was to fly to South Korea.—MARC REISCH
