NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – South San Francisco, Calif.-based Fluidigm has filed a lawsuit against Applera and its Applied Biosystems unit in which it is seeking a declaration from the court that it is not infringing an Applera patent.
Fluidigm has not filed a patent infringement suit against ABI, but rather filed the suit in response to a letter it recently received from ABI demanding the firm “immediately cease and desist from the manufacture, importation, use, sale, and offer of sale of [Fluidigm’s] BioMark System for Genetic Analysis” in jurisdictions in which ABI’s patent is valid.
The patent at issue, US No. 6,814,934, is entitled “Instrument for Monitoring Nucleic Acid Amplification” and was issued to ABI in November 2004. After it was issued, ABI filed patent-infringement suits against Bio-Rad Laboratories, MJ Research, and Stratagene, the company but has since settled all litigation surrounding the patent.
Fluidigm said in its complaint, filed on June 9 in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, that it believes “the danger that Applera will sue Fluidigm for infringement is real and imminent.”
Fluidigm is seeking a declaratory judgment of non-infringement of the ‘934 patent and a judgment that the ‘934 patent is invalid because it fails to satisfy the conditions and requirements for patentability.
The BioMark system is used for gene expression analysis, genotyping, and digital PCR applications.