The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has sued software tool maker Affymetrix over the outfit's GeneChip system.

GeneChip is a set if natty computer tools that allow boffins to study DNA and diagnose diseases. M.I.T. claims that Affymetrix has knowingly infringed its patent after it filed an application with the U.S .Patent and Trademark Office in September 2004.

The technology arrived at the USPTO six months after a similar patent was approved for M.I.T. The patent regulators ruled in May 2007 that the M.I.T. group was the first inventor, but Affymetric went ahead and used the GeneChip technology to develop new therapeutic drugs and to investigate the cause of cancer, AIDS and other diseases.