SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 28 – Contending patent violations, Incyte Genomics filed suit against Invitrogen on Nov. 21 in the US District Court of the Southern District of California.
The lawsuit follows Invitrogen’s own patent violations suit against Incyte , filed Oct. 17 in the US District Court of Delaware.
Incyte’s lawsuit contends multiple patent violations, including infringements against gene patents in connection with Invitrogen’s GeneStorm Clones product, RNA amplification and gene expression analysis, and microarray fabrication, according to the complaint filed with the court.
Incyte, which said in court papers that “Invitrogen’s infringements of the… patents has been willful and deliberate” said Incyte “has been and continues to be damaged in its collective business and property, including the loss of substantial profits in an amount to be determined at trial.”
“As [the claims of patent infringement] relates to our GeneStorm clones, it appears to apply to only a dozen of the thousands of clones we sell,” Paul Goodson, vice president of investor relations at Carlsbad, Calif.-based Invitrogen, told GenomeWeb . “As it relates to other technologies, we think either we didn’t infringe, they are not valid, or they are unenforceable.”
“We sued them not too long ago,” added Goodson. “We think this suit they have filed is a defensive tactic.”
Incyte declined to comment.
Incyte, based in Palo Alto, Calif., is currently undergoing a company-wide restructuring, including the announcement in October of approximately 400 layoffs and the appointment earlier this week of a new CEO and president .