NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Genetic Technologies today said that it and Gen-Probe have settled an intellectual property lawsuit, which has resulted in Gen-Probe taking a license to Genetic Technologies' non-coding patents.
Genetic Technologies said that the license covers the worldwide activities of Gen-Probe related to its genetic diagnostics and analysis products. However, commercial terms of the license remain confidential, Australia-based Genetic Technologies said in a statement.
This past February, Genetic Technologies filed a suit in the US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin alleging that several firms were infringing a US patent covering methods of analyzing non-coding DNA sequences. Among the firms named in the suit were Gen-Probe, Beckman Coulter, Orchid Cellmark, Interleukin Genetics, Molecular Pathology Laboratory Network, PIC USA, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, and Sunrise Medical Laboratories.
Genetic Technologies said that it and Gen-Probe began discussions following the filing of that lawsuit.
"We are pleased that in this instance the parties have, through good faith efforts on both sides, been able to avoid litigation and have come to a mutually agreeable outcome," Paul MacLeman, CEO of Genetic Technologies, said in a statement. "We remain committed to working with other companies that utilize our technology to regularize their activities and trust we can come to similar understandings with those parties in due course."
Last week, Pioneer Hi-Bred answered Genetic Technologies' claims in a filing with the court, in which it denied that it has infringed the patent at issue and denied the validity of the patent.