NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Genetic Technologies and Orchid Cellmark have settled a lawsuit filed by Genetic Technologies alleging patent infringement, according to a document filed last week in the US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.
Separately, Genetic Technologies said today that it has granted a non-exclusive license to Orchid Cellmark for a number of patents covering non-coding analysis, gene mapping, and internal standards.
The dispute between the firms centers on US Patent 5,612,179 titled, "Intron Sequence Analysis Method for Detection of Adjacent Locus Alleles as Haplotypes," which generally relates to methods of analyzing non-coding DNA sequences.
In February 2010, Genetic Technologies, based in Victoria, Australia, sued a number of firms, including Orchid Cellmark, Beckman Coulter, and Gen-Probe accusing them of infringing the patent. Most, if not all, of the defendants in the case have now resolved their dispute with Genetic Technologies, including EraGen Biosciences and Gen-Probe, which licensed Genetic Technologies' patent.
Orchid Cellmark's settlement with Genetic Technologies and the licensing of the patent immediately followed Orchid's agreement to be acquired by Laboratory Corporation of America for $85.4 million.
Financial and other terms of the licensing agreement between Genetic Technologies and Orchid Cellmark were not disclosed.