Litigation
Enzo Life Sciences Sues Roche, Gen-Probe
GenomeWeb Daily News reported that Enzo Life Sciences has filed lawsuits against Roche, Life Technologies, and Gen-Probe, alleging they infringed Enzo's patent pertaining to labeled nucleotides for use as diagnostic tools. According to GenomeWeb, in the lawsuits filed January 30 in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, Enzo claimed that the companies infringed U.S. Patent No. 6,992,180 titled "Oligo- or polynucleotides comprising phosphate-moiety labeled nucleotides" that...
TrovaGene Regains Rights to Transrenal Technology for Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing
TrovaGene Inc. regained ownership of its worldwide rights and control over its patent estate for transrenal technology for non-invasive prenatal applications and cancer through the termination of a license agreement between TrovaGene and Sequenom Inc. In 2008, TrovaGene licensed several of its patents to Sequenom for the development of prenatal diagnostic and screening applications on an exclusive basis. In 2009, TrovaGene initiated a lawsuit against Sequenom alleging fraud and demanding the...
Appeals Court Rules That Companies May Patent Breast Cancer Genes
In a 2-1 decision, a federal appeals court partially reversed a lower court’s ruling in a case challenging patents on two human genes associated with hereditary breast cancer and ovarian cancer. The court ruled that companies can obtain patents on the genes but cannot patent methods to compare those gene sequences. The ruling follows a lawsuit brought by a group of patients and scientists represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) and calls...
Supreme Court Sides with Roche
According to GenomeWeb Daily News, the Supreme Court ruled that Stanford University does not have a claim to PCR technology-related patents that it said Roche Molecular Systems has infringed. The decision will serve to clarify the domain of the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act and will mean that going forward, it is likely that universities seeking to retain rights to patents from their employees will need to have an agreement that assigns the school those rights. In a 7-2 decision, the court sided with...
ACLU in Federal Appeals Court Challenges Patents On Human Genes Linked To Breast Cancer
The American Civil Liberties Union, Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT), and U.S. Solicitor General Neal Katyal were in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. urging the court to uphold a lower court ruling that patents on two human genes are illegal. "The human gene is a product of nature and no more patentable than a human kidney,” said Chris Hansen, staff attorney with the ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project who argued on behalf of the...
GenMark Withdraws Patent Lawsuit Against Caliper
GenomeWeb Daily News has reported that GenMark Diagnostics has withdrawn a lawsuit against Caliper Life Sciences in which it asked a federal court to find that GenMark had not infringed on three patents. GenMark filed a motion with the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California on Monday, withdrawing its lawsuit filed on November 10, 2010. In its withdrawal, GenMark said the reason for the withdrawal is that Caliper had not "served an answer or motion for summary judgment to date...
Pacific Biosciences Responds to Patent Infringement Complaint by Helicos Biosciences
Pacific Biosciences announced that on August 27, 2010, it was named as a defendant in a complaint filed by Helicos Biosciences Corp. in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. In the complaint, Helicos alleges that Pacific Biosciences is infringing two patents allegedly licensed by Helicos and two patents allegedly owned by Helicos, by making, using, and selling its SMRT technology for single molecule sequencing of DNA and teaching customers how to use the SMRT technology and...
Cepheid Files Answer and Counterclaims in Abaxis Patent Suit
Cepheid has filed an answer and counterclaims in a patent suit brought by Abaxis on June 28, 2010 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. In its filing, Cepheid denied Abaxis' allegations of patent infringement, asked the Court to determine it has paid all royalties due and is in full compliance with all the terms of its license, and to find that Abaxis' patents are invalid. In 2005, Cepheid entered into a royalty-bearing license agreement with Abaxis for...
Patents On Breast Cancer Genes Ruled Invalid
Patents on genes associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer are invalid, ruled a New York federal court today. The precedent-setting ruling marks the first time a court has found patents on genes unlawful and calls into question the validity of patents now held on approximately 2,000 human genes. The ruling follows a lawsuit brought by a group of patients and scientists represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT), a not-for-profit...
Celera Provides Information on Suit Against Health Diagnostic Laboratory
Celera Corp. provided information on litigation filed by Berkeley HeartLab Inc. (BHL), Celera's wholly-owned subsidiary, against Health Diagnostic Laboratory Inc. and several former BHL employees, including five sales representatives who left the company on January 1, 2010, and two former laboratory employees. BHL has filed a complaint seeking injunctive relief and damages in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. In the litigation, BHL has asserted a number of...