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Life Technologies Sues Biosearch for Infringing PCR Probe IP

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Life Technologies has filed a lawsuit charging Biosearch Technologies with infringing five patents related to fluorescent probes used in real-time PCR.

The suit, filed Sept. 18 in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas Marshall Division, relates to five patents assigned to Life Technologies' Applied Biosystems group. The patents — Nos. 5,538,848; 5,723,591; 5,876,930; 6,030,787; and 6,258,569 — cover various aspects of self-quenching fluorescent probes.

The suit claims that Biosearch "makes, uses, imports, sells and/or offers for sale dual-labeled probes incorporating a quencher and fluorophore reporter covalently linked to the 3' or 5' ends of an oligonucleotide that are used to monitor DNA amplification in real-time that infringe or that are used in ways that infringe one or more claims" of each of the five patents.

Life Technologies is seeking an injunction against further infringement of the patents as well as damages that are "no less than a reasonable royalty" as compensation for the alleged infringement.

The company has also asked the court to determine that Biosearch has willfully infringed the patents, which would make the firm liable for triple damages.

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