UPC confirms dates for 10x Genomics hearings
UPC announces public hearings at Munich court | Proceedings relate to the dispute over patents covering the in-situ detection of analytes.
The Unified Patent Court (UPC) has made its first announcement for scheduled hearings at one of the court’s local divisions.
Both hearings, to take place at the Munich Local Division, concern applications for provisional measures in the dispute between 10x Genomics and others v NanoString Technologies and others.
10x and NanoString are biotechnology research companies specialising in single-cell spatial transcriptomics (SST).
In a spate of lawsuits, 10x alleges that Nanostring’s CosMx products for ribonucleic acid (RNA) detection infringe its European patents 2 794 928 B1 and 4 108 782 B1, and that Vizgen’s Merscope products infringe the ‘782 patent.
The patents relate to the in-situ detection of analytes. According to its UPC filings, 10x is seeking “pan-European injunctive relief against the infringing activities of Nanostring and Vizgen across EU member states that are part of the new system”.
Details of the UPC hearings
Public hearing 1 will be heard on September 5 and 6, 2023, with the hearing on the second day taking place only if the hearing cannot be concluded on the first day (file number: ACT_459746/2023 UPC_CFI_2/2023).
Public hearing 2 will be heard on September 19, 2023 (file number: ACT_459996/2023 UPC_CFI_17/2023).
The UPC hearings will begin at 9am and take place at Denisstraße 3, 2nd floor, hearing room 212 and overflow room 220b, 80335 Munich, Germany.
The language of the proceedings will be German. In total there are 13 local divisions of the Court of First Instance, with four being in Germany—Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Mannheim and Munich.
The remainder are located in Vienna, Brussels, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Paris, Milan, The Hague, Lisbon, and Ljubljana.
Under the UPC Agreement, Court of First Instance divisions like these are located in states where there are on average more than 50 patent cases a year.
Earlier this year, in May, 10x Genomics secured an injunction in its patent litigation against NanoString Technologies at the Munich Regional Court.
The order required NanoString to stop selling and supplying the CosMx Spatial Molecular Imager (CosMx SMI) instruments as well as CosMx reagents for RNA detection in Germany.
The court issued the injunction based on its finding that the CosMx products infringe European patent number 2794928B1, which relates to in situ detection of analytes. In its decision, the Munich court referenced an earlier preliminary opinion by the German Federal Patent Court, which found the asserted claims of the patent to be valid.
US lawsuits
The hearings mark the latest stage in the multi-jurisdictional litigation waged by the companies. 10x Genomics has initiated legal action against NanoString on more than 12 other patents, a number of which are related to the patent asserted in Germany. The company is also pursuing action in the US.
In May 2021, 10x Genomics filed a lawsuit against NanoString in the US District Court for the District of Delaware alleging that NanoString's GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler and associated instruments, reagents and services infringe a number of patents.
Slightly less that a year later, 10x Genomics filed a second suit against NanoString in the same court in February 2022 alleging that NanoString's CosMx Spatial Molecular Imager and associated instruments, reagents and services infringe yet more of its IP.
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