Fed Circ. agrees Bio-Rad infringed 10x patents
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has affirmed a US International Trade Commission (ITC) decision that ruled Bio-Rad Laboratories had infringed three 10x Genomics patents.
The appellate court said in a ruling on Thursday April 29 that the ITC was correct in finding that the three patents were not invalid, and found no error in its rejection of Bio-Rad’s arguments that it co-owned the patents.
The disputed patents were US9,689,024 (‘024), US9,695,468 (’468), and US 9,856,530 (‘530)—all pertaining to microfluidic systems.
“In short, we see no lack of substantial evidence in support of the findings that underlie, and no error in, the rejection of Bio-Rad’s co-inventorship contention—or, therefore, in the Commission’s rejection of Bio-Rad’s ownership defense,” said Circuit Judge Taranto.
Bio-rad claimed co-ownership and inventorship by citing provisions that two of the patent’s inventors—Drs. Hindson and Saxonov—signed whilst working at Bio-Rad.
Bio-Rad asserted that if Hindson and Saxonov had ideas that contributed to the post-employment inventions while working at Bio-Rad, those contributions would make Bio-Rad co-inventors, and therefore co-owners.
Case History
10X Genomics had filed a complaint against Bio-Rad technology with the ITC alleging that Bio-Rad’s importation and sale of microfluidic systems and components for gene sequencing infringed its patents.
The Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) found that Bio-Rad infringed the patent claims and rejected Bio-Rad’s defense that it co-owned the patents.
In February 2020, the ITC affirmed the ALJ decision, ruling that Bio-Rad had infringed the ‘024, ‘468 and ‘530 patents, but found no violation with a fourth patent (‘240).
Bio-Rad then appealed this decision to the Federal Circuit.
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