A DAVID and Goliath biotechnology battle over patents for DNA chips is moving to the United States.

The move comes after Oxford Gene Technology won a High Court victory in which Mr Justice Jacob ruled that US firm Affymetrix which is 30 per cent owned by Glaxo Wellcome did not hold a licence to use OGT's gene scanning technology.

The battle will now continue in the USA where, according to OGT's lawyers, Manches, the payout could be considerable.

Chris Shelley, partner at the Oxford office of Manches, said: "The US trial is due to start in October and, assuming that OGT win, the company could receive $100m in damages. A victory could also result in OGT being entitled to take out an injunction to close down Affymetrix."

California-based Affymetrix, on the other hand, is one of the world's ten biggest biotech companies, while OGT, a start-up firm jointly owned by Professor Ed Southern and Oxford University, has only recently taken on its fifth employee.

OGT has funded the legal action by licensing deals with Incyte Pharmaceuticals, Hewlett Packard's biotech subsidiary Agilent Technologies, and others.