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Promoter Patent Documents

The following is an example of granted patents for promoter sequences from Ceres Inc. Although the application shown here contains less than 100 sequences, they are included to demonstrate Ceres’ interest in Arabidopsis promoters and the relationship between the claims in granted patents and patent applications. Additionally, Ceres has many applications and patents for promoters, which together might constitute claims equivalent to a bulk sequence application.

The following 816′ application does not list Ceres as the applicant or correspondent!  By performing google searches using the inventors names (shing kwok yu-ping) it was possible to infer that these inventors were employed by Ceres around the same tme that the patent application was made (the publication number 20060008816 is not present in the USPTO assignee database at the time of this analysis).  Hence the inclusion of the application below:

Patent or Publication No. Title, Independent Claims and Summary Applicant
US 2006/8816 A1

  • Earliest priority – 6 Nov 2003
  • Filed – 04 Nov 2004
  • Granted – Pending
  • Expected expiry – N/A
 Title – Promoter, Promoter control elements, and combinations, and uses thereof

Claim 1
An isolated nucleic acid molecule capable of modulating transcription wherein

the nucleic acid molecule shows at least 80% sequence identity to a sequence set forth in Table 1, or
a complement thereof.
Claim 6
A vector construct comprising:

  • a) a first nucleic acid capable of modulating transcription wherein the nucleic acid molecule shows at least 80% sequence identity to a sequence set forth in Table 1; and
  • b) a second nucleic acid having to be transcribed,
  • wherein said first and second nucleic acid molecules are heterologous to each other and are operably linked together.
Claim 13
A method of modulating transcription by combining, in an environment suitable for transcription:

  • a) a first nucleic acid molecule capable of modulating transcription wherein the nucleic acid molecule shows at least 80% sequence identity to a sequence set forth in Table 1; and
  • b) a second molecule to be transcribed;
  • wherein the first and second nucleic acid molecules are heterologous to each other and operably linked together.

The claims are generally drawn to:

  • nucleic acids similar to those in table 1 (at least 80% identity) capable of modulating transcription (claim 1)
  • constructs comprising the sequences above (claim 6)
  • a method of modulating transcription by the sequences above (claim 13).

Original Applicant:


Listed inventors


Assumed, Present Assignee:

Ceres Inc.
Remarks It is interesting to note that using the USPTO assignee database to search for “CERES” as ASSIGNEE returns patent documents that have the University of California named as applicant and that were later assigned to Ceres.  Hence using CERES in the search below is likely to miss granted patents now assigned to Ceres. Additionally there is no guarantee that patents now assigned to Ceres will have their assignments updated in the USPTOs databses!

Search Strategy Used

The patents for promoter sequences discussed in this section were identified using the following search strategy.

Search details
Date of search 08 09 2006
Database searched Patent Lens, accessible at www.patentlens.net
Type of search Structured Search
Collections searched US-A, WO-A, US-B, EP-B, AU-B (add link to “Documents in  Collection” which will take you to a web page that describes the extent of the collection.)
Search terms (Arabidopsis AND thaliana AND Ceres) AND (promoter in claims) AND (SEQ AND ID)
Results Of the 34 results obtained from this search, many had no obvious links to Ceres. Confirming the identity of Ceres as the assignee was difficult since “Ceres” as a search term uncovered documents containing “Ceres” linked to materials used in experimentation (e.g. Ceres microarrays…). For this reason we chose to discuss only the single document above to demonstrate Ceres’ interests in Arabidopsis promoters. Please take note that this document was chosen because it is part of a larger document family with 5 US and one PCT applications. It is likely that the above represents only a small part of the promoter sequences included in patent documents.
Comments You may find other patents or applications of interest based on your particular circumstances.  We encourage you to go to the Patent Lens to adapt this search to your needs or to update this search.  We invite you to provide comments on patents or applications that you see below or that you identify in your own searches which may be of interest to those reading this landscape, by going to the Add Comment link.