NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The US District Court for the Northern District of California has agreed to reconsider part of its recent ruling in a patent dispute between Illumina and Complete Genomics, Illumina said today.
Last month the District Court had granted partial summary judgment in favor of Complete Genomics. Specifically, the court ruled that certain claims in Illumina's US Patent No. 6,306,597, which covers DNA sequencing by parallel oligonucleotide extensions, the use of arrayed biomolecules in sequencing, and methods and compositions for ordering restriction fragments, were invalid.
Illumina said today that the court has agreed to allow the firm to file a brief asking the court to reconsider its earlier ruling invalidating claims 14 and 15 of the '597 patent. Illumina said that it would seek a Jan. 8, 2013 hearing date on the motion for reconsideration.
"We continue to believe that this patent covers important and novel inventions that Complete Genomics has misappropriated," Illumina President and CEO Jay Flatley said in a statement.
The litigation is taking place amid Illumina's recent bid to acquire Complete Genomics, which already has inked a deal to merge with BGI-Shenzhen. Illumina has offered a 5 percent premium to the $3.15 per-share price that BGI has agreed to pay, and last week Flatley sent a letter to Complete Genomics' board urging them to reconsider the competing bid.