Oxford Immunotec settles with Qiagen, signs $27.5m licence
UK-based diagnostics company Oxford Immunotec has settled a patent infringement dispute with Qiagen, a provider of sample and assay technologies for molecular diagnostics.
On Friday, December 15, the parties settled the patent lawsuit at the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Oxford had sued Qiagen in August 2015, accusing the Netherlands-headquartered company of infringing patents relating to means for “diagnosing infection with or exposure to a mycobacterium that expresses certain proteins”, specifically for diagnosing a tuberculosis (TB) infection.
In Oxford’s test, a blood sample is exposed to certain peptide antigens, which are recognised by T-cells of a person previously exposed to or infected with TB.
Qiagen’s diagnostic tests for the detection of TB infection—QuantiFERON-TB Gold and QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus—were alleged to have infringed six of Oxford’s patents.
In August 2016, US Magistrate Judge Donald Cabell issued a report and recommendation that Qiagen’s motion to dismiss be allowed in part and denied in part.
Qiagen had argued that Oxford’s patents were directed to a “law of nature” and therefore included non-patentable subject matter.
The court recommended that Qiagen’s motion to dismiss be allowed for the “kit claims”, where Qiagen argued that the peptides used in Oxford’s tuberculosis test kit are naturally occurring.
“The kit claims only describe the peptide panel itself and do not involve the ‘inventive concept’ of an in vitro test, and thus are not drawn to patentable subject matter,” said Cabell.
Then, in September this year, US District Judge Nathaniel Gorton denied Oxford’s motion for a preliminary injunction.
Under the terms of the settlement, all pending claims between the parties have been resolved.
Oxford has granted Qiagen a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence that extends to all current and future customers of Qiagen’s two TB diagnostic tests, in exchange for a $27.5 million payment.
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