The matter is of particular importance since UMass is the only one of the four organizations to which the IP is assigned to have licensed it to companies other than Alnylam.
The agreement settles a suit brought in Canada last month by PerkinElmer against MDS, seeking to block the transfer of a joint venture with MDS Analytical Technologies to Danaher.
Myriad would like the court to decide the ACLU's anti-gene-patenting suit ahead of the case going to trial, while the USPTO would like to the court to dismiss the claims against it.
The former CEO of Visigen, which was acquired in 2008 by Invitrogen, has alleged breach of contract, fraud, and negligent representation, all of which have been denied by Life Technologies.
The settlement, which will be funded by insurance proceeds, relates to a lawsuit filed in November by Sequenom's shareholders alleging mishandling of data surrounding the company's SEQureDx test.
The suit, filed by Alnylam and Max Planck against the University of Massachusetts, MIT, and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, is set to go to trial Feb. 22.
GE Healthcare charges in its complaint that kits and instruments sold by Beckman Coulter Genomics based on the Agencourt Solid Phase Reversible Immobilization, or SPRI, technology "contain instructions to use the products in a manner that infringes one or more claims of the '231 and/or '946 patents."
