Pacific Biosciences and Oxford Nanopore settle patent claims
US-based Pacific Biosciences has entered into a five-year settlement agreement with Oxford Nanopore after the companies were locked in a legal battle.
Pacific Biosciences is a biotechnology company that develops and manufactures systems for gene sequencing, while Oxford Nanopore is a UK-based technology company that develops and sells nanopore sequencing products for the direct, electronic analysis of single molecules.
Under the terms of the agreement, Oxford Nanopore will stop offering 2D sequencing products in the UK and Germany until the end of 2023.
Pacific Biosciences had previously sued Oxford Nanopore for patent infringement at the English High Court and the District Court of Mannheim, Germany.
The patents in question relate to “compositions and methods for nucleic acid sequencing” (European numbers 3,045,542 and 3,170,904).
In response to the litigation, Oxford Nanopore filed a suit for infringement of European patent number 1,192,453 (“Molecular and atomic scale evaluation of biopolymers).
In return for Oxford Nanopore not using or importing any 2D nanopore sequencing products until 2023, Pacific Biosciences has agreed not to assert the ‘904 and ‘542 patents against Oxford Nanopore or its customers in the UK or Germany.
Oxford Nanopore has also agreed to dismiss its infringement claims of the ‘453 patent against Pacific Biosciences and its customers.
Michael Hunkapiller, CEO of Pacific Biosciences, said that the company is pleased with the agreement.
“From the beginning, our goal with the UK and German actions was to enforce and protect our IP estate, specifically with regard to Oxford Nanopore’s 2D products, which utilise Pacific Biosciences’ single molecule consensus sequencing technology, and which Oxford Nanopore discontinued soon after we initiated the litigation,” he commented.
Pacific Biosciences’ patents do not expire until March 2029. It has the right to reassert the patents against Oxford Nanopore in the UK and Germany after 2023.
Gordon Sanghera, CEO of Oxford Nanopore, added: “We do not infringe their (Pacific Biosciences’) patents and the settlement has no impact on our current business or our plans.
“It is reassuring that Pacific Biosciences has not succeeded in its strategy to try to prevent us from selling our real-time, scalable, ultra-long read, direct sequencing technology.”
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