LBT Innovations Limited has received confirmation that the Japan Patent Office has granted the company’s application for a Japanese patent protecting the image capture technology of its Automated Plate Assessment System (APAS®).

APAS® is a novel technology that has successfully been shown to assess microbiology samples for the presence of disease-causing bacteria, with significant implications for laboratory efficiency. The patent relates to patent application no. 2013-555706, which covers the image capture and lighting apparatus of the APAS® technology. The patent provides protection of this intellectual property throughout Japan for the next 16 years.

The Japanese patent follows three successful applications for United States patents covering the APAS® image capture and lighting apparatus, the key systems and analytical software of APAS®, and a novel method used to ‘colour calibrate’ images captured by APAS®. These three patents all provide for 20 years of patent protection, and are part of a portfolio of four inventions related to APAS, for which LBT initiated intellectual property protection in 2011.

The first APAS instrument, the APAS® Independence, was unveiled at the 26th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Amsterdam last month. The APAS® Independence is an automated culture plate reader and sorter that integrates APAS® with high-speed robotic plate-handling equipment in a world-first plate-handling solution. The instrument was unveiled by Clever Culture Systems AG, the joint venture established by LBT and its 50-50 development partner, Hettich AG Switzerland.

Visit www.cleverculturesystems.com/blog