Illumina fails in patent litigation with LadaTech

USA-based Illumina (Nasdaq: ILMN) says that a federal jury in Wilmington, Delaware, found that certain of its TruSeq sample preparation and cluster generation kits and products infringe US Patent No 6,107,023, held by patent holder LadaTech (which is partly owned by the UK drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline).

Other Illumina sample preparation kits, such as its Nextera kits, were not accused of infringement in the lawsuit. In addition, US District Court Judge Sue Robinson in an earlier order granted summary judgment that Illumina cluster generation kits and products, when used with sample preparation kits made or sold by third parties, do not infringe the patent.

The case will now proceed to its next phase in which Illumina, which is the subject of a hostile $5.7 billion takeover attempt by Roche (The Pharma Letter February 28), will have the opportunity to demonstrate that the jury’s verdict should not stand because the patent is unenforceable. The jury’s verdict is therefore preliminary, and in the meantime Illumina plans to support its customers with the products that are the subject of the suit.