NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) — GenMark Diagnostics has withdrawn a lawsuit against Caliper Life Sciences in which it asked a federal court to find that GenMark had not infringed on three patents.
GenMark filed a motion with the US District Court, Northern District of California on Monday, withdrawing its lawsuit filed on Nov. 10, 2010. In its withdrawal, GenMark said the reason for the withdrawal is that Caliper had not "served an answer or motion for summary judgment to date in this matter."
In November, GenMark sued Caliper in a case involving US Patent Number 6,366,924, entitled "Distributed Database for Analytical Instruments;" US Patent Number 6,399,025, entitled "Analtycial System and Method;" and US Patent Number 6,495,104, entitled "Indicator Components for Microfluidic Systems."
The '924 patent pertains to a method for "displaying chromatographic data using a graphical user interface," according to its abstract. The '025 patent covers an analytical or preparatory system employing analytical substrates evaluated in a base unit and methods for performing chemical and biological analyses. The '104 patent pertains to microfluidic devices and systems.
In its complaint, GenMark said that Caliper had communicated through much of 2010 with the company that GenMark was infringing the three patents and "strongly [intimated] that unless a license agreement was reached quickly Caliper would enforce its right under the patent laws. These communications have created an apprehension in GenMark that Caliper intends to sue if GenMark refuses to enter into such a license."
GenMark said in its complaint that it does not believe it has infringed the patents and that it does not believe the patents are valid.