Mediation conferences to potentially resolve Helicos BioSciences' patent lawsuit against Pacific Biosciences, Life Technologies, and Illumina have been rescheduled for early 2012, according to a court order filed this week.
Originally, the conferences had been scheduled for late August of this year but were canceled due to a hurricane on the East Coast (IS 7/26/2011 and IS 9/13/2011).
Helicos is now scheduled to meet with PacBio on Jan. 17 or 18, or on April 24, 2012, depending on the court's availability; with Illumina on Feb. 13; and with Life Tech on Feb. 14.
Helicos first filed the suit against PacBio in late 2010 in the US District Court for the District of Delaware, claiming that PacBio's sequencing technology infringes four of its patents, and later added Illumina and Life Tech as defendants to the suit.
PacBio, Illumina, and Life Tech later countersued Helicos, claiming that several of the patents are invalid and unenforceable.
Separately, the United States Patent and Trademark Office initiated the reexamination of several Helicos patents, including those under dispute, following requests from PacBio and Life Tech (IS 9/13/2011).