Illumina accuses BGI of patent infringement, again

Genetic sequencing company Illumina has continued its campaign of filing patent lawsuits against rival BGI, with the filing of three additional infringement suits.

On Friday, June 28, US-based Illumina accused the Chinese genome sequencing company of infringing patents through BGI’s sale of its sequencing products and related chemistry reagents.

In the US, Illumina filed a claim against Complete Genomics and other BGI entities at the US District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that they had infringed US patent numbers 7,566,537 and 9,410,200.

Meanwhile, Illumina also filed a suit against BGI in the Federal Patent Court in Switzerland and a suit against BGI’s distributor, Genoks Genetik Hastalıklar Tanı Merkezi, in the Istanbul Civil Court for Intellectual and Industrial Rights in Turkey.

All of the patents cover Illumina’s sequencing-by-synthesis chemistry.

This is just the latest in a series of patent suits filed by Illumina—in March, Illumina submitted a claim at the Düsseldorf Regional Court in Germany, followed by a filing at the Maritime & Commercial High Court of Denmark in May.

In May, Complete Genomics retaliated with its own complaint, filed at the US District Court for the District of Delaware, which accused Illumina of infringing various claims of a patent that covers “methods and compositions for efficient base calling in sequencing reactions”.

Charles Dadswell, senior vice president and general counsel for Illumina, said: “We believe BGI’s infringement is pervasive. Their continued unauthorised infringement requires that we enforce our IP and protect the substantial investments that have been made in our sequencing-by-synthesis chemistry.”

In June this year, the English High Court handed a win to Illumina, after finding that the Doctors Laboratory (TDL) and Ariosa Diagnostics, which is owned by Roche, had infringed a patent which covers the “non-invasive detection of fetal genetic traits”.

US-based company Sequenom owns the patent, while Illumina has been the exclusive licensee of the patent since January 2019.

In a statement sent to LSIPR, BGI's subsidiary MGI said it “opposes the abuse of patent litigation to maintain market monopoly and suppress the development of the industry, and advocates fair competition and an open environment for innovation”.

MGI also said it has taken legal action to protect its IP, in response to claims filed against it by Illumina and will continue to do so as necessary

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