Australia’s Benitec said last week that it has filed patent infringement lawsuits against Nucleonics, Ambion, and GenScript, a legal move widely expected given recent comments by the company’s senior management.

Benitec’s suit alleges that the three companies all have infringed on a US patent entitled “Genetic Constructs for Delaying or Repressing the Expression of a Target Gene.”

Benitec is seeking treble damages from Nucleonics and Ambion, but not GenScript, for “willful [patent] infringement,” according to the lawsuit.