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Sequenom Files Patent Infringement Suit Against Ariosa, Others in Australia

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Sequenom has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Sonic Healthcare, Australian Clinical Labs, and Ariosa Diagnostics in the Australian Federal Court, alleging the firms infringe a patent it holds related to noninvasive prenatal testing.

Sequenom alleges in its suit that Sonic Healthcare and Australian Clinical Labs run Ariosa's Harmony noninvasive prenatal test, which it said infringes Sequenom's Australian Patent 727,919.

The patent is a counterpart to the broad US-based patent that Sequenom held related to NIPT, US Patent No. 6,258,540, and which the US District Court for the Northern District of California found ineligible for patenting in 2013.

Sequenom said in the suit that it would seek all available remedies, including damages and orders of restraint.

In a statement, Sequenom CEO Dirk van den Boom said that over 45 labs and healthcare organizations had licensed intellectual property to develop NIPT from the patent pool that Sequenom and Illumina established in 2014.

"We are committed to preserving the value of the intellectual property of the patent pool for the benefit of our licensees, and this lawsuit adds to suits already filed in the UK and in Europe," van den Boom said.

Illumina has sued Premaitha Health and The Doctor's Laboratory, TDL Genetics, and Ariosa in the UK — lawsuits that will be heard together in 2017.

In addition, it brought suits against Swiss NIPT firm Genoma and two Polish companies, Centrum Badan and Medgenetix. 

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