Helicos BioSciences has expanded its existing license with Arizona Technology Enterprises, the tech transfer organization for Arizona State University, to include detection methods that do not rely on optically labeled nucleotides, the company said today.
"The newly acquired rights will be an important asset in our licensing and IP monetization efforts," said Ivan Trifunovich, Helicos' president and CEO, in a statement.
"As we witness the rapid expansion of next-generation sequencing applications covered by our patents in the research and molecular diagnostic fields, we intend to maximize the return to our stakeholders through a licensing program and IP enforcement mechanisms."
Helicos is currently suing Pacific Biosciences, Illumina, and Life Technologies for alleged infringement of its patents (IS 7/26/2011).
The company also said that eight new patents issued or were allowed, and that it has filed more than a dozen patent applications this year.
Two new patents, US Patent Nos. 7,875,440 and 7,897,345, "contain very broad claims that cover the very core chemistry of most major next-generation sequencing platforms," the company said.
The '440 patent is currently the subject of an inter partes reexamination by the US Patent and Trademark Office that was requested by Life Technologies and granted by the USPTO on Aug. 17.