NEW YORK – Bruker said Thursday that the European Unified Patent Court (UPC) has ruled in favor of its NanoString business in its patent dispute with 10x Genomics, invalidating 10x's European Patent No. 2794928B1.
The ruling follows a May 2024 decision by the German Federal Patent Court that also declared the 928 patent invalid. With the UPC decision, the 928 patent has now also been declared invalid in France and the Netherlands.
"Today’s ruling marks the third decision of three separate courts in less than a year vindicating our view that the patents being asserted against us by 10x are invalid,” Todd Garland, president of the Bruker Spatial Biology division, said in a statement.
An appeal is pending in the German case, and the UPC decision is subject to appeal.
Still at issue is a related European patent held by 10x, patent 4108782B1, which the company claims NanoString's technology infringes. In February, the UPC Court of Appeal overturned a preliminary injunction against NanoString issued by the UPC Munich local division in September 2023, citing concerns about the validity of the patent.
A date has not yet been set for an additional UPC hearing on the 782 patent. In separate European Patent Office (EPO) opposition proceedings, the EPO issued a preliminary nonbinding opinion in which the 782 patent as granted was considered invalid. A hearing before the EPO is scheduled for March 18, 2025.
Bruker acquired NanoString in May of this year for about $393 million in cash after NanoString had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.