Health Discovery Corporation Announces Additional Issued Patents and Notices of Allowance to Its Intellectual Property Portfolio

New U.S. and Foreign Patents

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a patent to HDC that includes additional, broader claims to the Company's exclusive Recursive Feature Elimination (RFE) using Support Vector Machines ("SVM") or SVM-RFE method, the first patent for which issued in 2006. The SVM-RFE method has been used to successfully identify the most important pieces of information needed to solve complex pattern-recognition problems and has been shown in numerous peer-reviewed publications from some of the worlds top academic institutions to be a superior technology for the successful discovery of new molecular diagnostic/prognostic tests for personalized medicine. HDC has the only issued patents in the world for the SVM-RFE technology, which was discovered by members of the HDC science team. The SVM-RFE technology was the method used to discover the Company's new tissue and urine based prostate cancer tests recently licensed to Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX), Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) and Clarient Inc. (Nasdaq: CLRT).

The European Patent Office issued a notice of its intent to grant a patent covering HDC's SVM-based computer-aided image analysis techniques. Corresponding patents have already been granted in the U.S., Australia and Japan. This is an important patent for the successful development of SVM based digital pathology and radiology interpretations. This significant patent protects HDC's development of new tests for cervical cancer (PAP Smear Interpretation), circulating tumor cell (CTC) analysis in breast cancer and radiologic interpretation of mammograms for breast cancer.

Another newly issued USPTO patent covers an SVM-based data-mining platform for classification of data from heterogeneous biological datasets.

The USPTO also issued a new patent to HDC covering a data-mining platform with multiple SVM modules for use in analyzing bioinformatics data.

In addition, the USPTO issued a new patent to HDC, which covers the use of SVM technology for ranking of input features for selection of the most relevant input parameters needed to classify data.

HDC was also issued a patent in Japan, which covers (RFE) using Support Vector Machines ("SVM") for selection and ranking of the most important features within large datasets. This patent further protects HDC's SVM-RFE technology outside the United States expanding our global protection of this very important discovery method for molecular diagnostic/prognostic test development for personalized medicine.

An Indian patent was issued to HDC covering the use of SVMs for knowledge discovery from multiple data sets. This patent further expands HDC's patents for integrating patient data from multiple sources such as genomic data, clinical data, digital pathology data and radiologic data. This integration of data is thought to be the "Holy Grail" of personalized medicine.

A New FDA-Approved Ovarian Cancer Test based on an HDC Patented Technology

HDC's patented technology played a pivotal role in identifying biomarkers in a recently FDA-approved ovarian cancer test developed by Vermillion, Inc. (VRMLQ.PK).

HDC prosecuted a patent infringement action against Vermillion's predecessor company, Ciphergen Biosystems, Inc., which resulted in a $600,000 cash settlement in favor of HDC and a grant of a limited license to Vermillion by HDC. The HDC limited license grant to Vermillion is for non-exclusive use solely for Vermillion's SELDI-based mass spectrometer technology.

HDC's License Partners

HDC's key license partners to date include Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT), Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX), Clarient Inc. (Nasdaq: CLRT) and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE).

HDC recently entered into royalty-bearing licenses for its new urine-based prostate cancer test with Quest Diagnostics Incorporated and Abbott Laboratories for development and commercialization. These licenses are solely for the use of HDC's prostate cancer biomarkers in urine.

HDC also entered into royalty-bearing licenses for its tissue biopsy-based prostate cancer test with Abbott Laboratories and Clarient Inc. for development and commercialization. This license is solely for the use of HDC's prostate cancer biomarkers in tissue biopsy specimens.

HDC has also partnered with Pfizer Inc. for use of HDC's SVM and SVM-RFE pattern recognition technology in Pfizer's global research and development.

HDC has also entered into a license with Smart Personalized Medicine, LLC ("SPM"), a privately-held company, founded by Dr. Richard Caruso, Chairman and founder of Integra Life Sciences (NasdaqGS: IART) to develop a superior breast cancer prognostic test using HDC's SVM technology in cooperation with MD Anderson Cancer Center. HDC has a fifteen percent equity position in SPM and HDC will receive royalties from this new breast cancer prognostic test.

HDC has entered into a development and license agreement with DCL Medical Laboratories, LLC, for the collaborative development and commercialization of SVM-based computer assisted diagnostic tests for the independent detection of ovarian, cervical and endometrial cancers.

HDC's Patents Cover Non-Medical Applications

There are a large number of non-medical applications protected by HDC's patents, including but not limited to, fraud detection, investment and commodities price predictions, bankruptcy prediction, image and object analysis, face recognition, text and document classification, speech recognition, personalized consumer purchasing patterns, decryption, vehicle control and monitoring, weather forecasting and database marketing.

Total Number of Patents Pending and Issued

With the issuance of the new patents described above, HDC now holds exclusive rights to a total of 37 issued U.S. and foreign patents. There will be 41 when the 4 new ones (subjects of the Notices of Allowance) issue in the next few months. HDC has a total of 71 patents pending and issued. Importantly, the first expiration of any of the HDC patents is May 2019 and new patents are currently being filed which when granted will have an additional 20 years of protection for the Company.

HDC's Successful Prosecution of Patent Infringement Cases

In addition to the Vermillion patent infringement case described above, HDC successfully prosecuted a patent infringement lawsuit against Equbits LLC, which resulted in a permanent injunction against Equbits, LLC.

"HDC is determined to continue to grow and protect its valuable intellectual property portfolio. The Equbits judgment and Vermillion settlement and limited license strengthens our licensing posture in the marketplace and sets the appropriate tone for our future enforcement efforts," stated Stephen D. Barnhill, M.D., HDC's Chairman and CEO.

"HDC remains firmly committed to successfully monetizing our valuable intellectual property through additional licensing, close collaboration, development and commercialization with our business partners and we will also continue to protect our patent portfolio through robust enforcement action when strategically appropriate," said Dr. Barnhill.

HDC's patent strategy includes a significant after-claiming component with multiple CIP's and Continuations already in place.

About Health Discovery Corporation

Health Discovery Corporation is a molecular diagnostics company that uses advanced mathematical techniques to analyze large amounts of data to uncover patterns that might otherwise be undetectable. It operates primarily in the emerging field of personalized medicine where such tools are critical to scientific discovery. Its primary business consists of licensing its intellectual property and developing its own product line of biomarker-based diagnostic tests that include human genes and genetic variations, as well as gene, protein, and metabolic expression differences and image analysis in digital pathology and radiology. For more information, see www.healthdiscovercorp.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This document contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the accuracy of which is necessarily subject to risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, statements regarding future performance, opportunities and investments, and anticipated results in general. From time to time the Company may make other forward-looking statements relating to other matters, including without limitation, commercialization plans and strategic partnerships. Actual results may differ materially due to a variety of factors, including, among other things, the acceptance of our approach to applying mathematics computer science and physics into the disciplines of biology, organic chemistry and medicine and our products and technologies associated with those approaches, the ability to develop or commercialize new drugs, therapies or other products based on our approaches, and other factors set forth from time to time in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

All forward-looking statements and cautionary statements included in this document are made as of the date hereof based on information available to the Company as of the date hereof, and the Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement or cautionary statement.

SOURCE: Health Discovery Corporation

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