NEW YORK – Bruker said on Thursday that an injunction prohibiting sales of CosMx Spatial Molecular Imager products by its NanoString business in Germany has been lifted.
According to Billerica, Massachusetts-based Bruker, effective immediately, CosMx products are available to customers in Germany again after the company posted a bond to suspend the injunction, as authorized by the Munich Higher Regional Court.
A year ago, as part of a patent dispute, the lower regional court had awarded 10x Genomics a permanent injunction, barring NanoString Technologies from selling CosMx instruments and reagents in Germany.
Later in 2023, 10x won a preliminary injunction from the European Unified Patent Court, preventing NanoString from selling CosMx products in 16 countries in Europe. That injunction was overturned earlier this year by the European UPC Court of Appeal.
Meanwhile, Bruker acquired NanoString in May of this year for about $393 million in cash after NanoString filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Also in May, the German Federal Patent Court invalidated 10x's European Patent No. 2794928B1 in Germany. 10x, in its suits in Germany and before the European UPC, had asserted that the CosMx infringed this patent.
In addition, according to Bruker, the Munich Higher Regional Court, which hears appeals, last December cited concerns with the lower court's 2023 decision and granted NanoString the right to have the injunction in Germany lifted, subject to a bond payment.
"The Munich Higher Regional Court ruled that suspending enforcement of the injunction was appropriate, since the lower court had failed to address aspects of the case that were relevant to the decision," Bruker said in a statement. "The court observed that a disputed feature of the patent at issue was seemingly overlooked by the lower court."