This story has been updated to include comments from Oxford Nanopore Technologies.
NEW YORK – Oxford Nanopore Technologies has withdrawn an ex parte court application to serve subpoenas to Complete Genomics, Innomics (formerly known as BGI Americas), MGI Americas, and other entities to support a lawsuit the company intends to file in the courts of England and Wales.
According to a filing with the US District Court for the Northern District of California on Sunday, Oxford Nanopore withdraw its application and dismissed the action "without prejudice in its entirety."
Oxford Nanopore filed the ex parte application in September, weeks after BGI unveiled its first nanopore sequencer. At that time, the company said it planned to sue BGI Tech Solutions, BGI Group, BGI, Beijing Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, MGI Holdings, and MGI Tech in England for breach of contractual obligations, common law obligations of confidence, and duties under the Trade Secrets Regulations 2018. It also said it would file an entitlement claim to a license for certain patents.
In an email, an Oxford Nanopore spokesperson said the ex parte court application was "a discovery action," which was "no longer needed in [the company's] broader strategy." The spokesperson, however, did not answer whether the company still plans to bring BGI and affiliates to court in England and Wales, other than noting that the firm will "continue to take our defence of our IP very seriously and will provide updates as appropriate."
MGI Tech declined to comment on the matter.