Scripps patent case against Illumina dismissed

A California district court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by The Scripps Research Institute, a US non-profit medical research facility, against biotechnology company Illumina for alleged patent infringement.

Scripps is the owner of US patent number 6,060,596, titled “Encoded combinatorial chemical libraries”.

In the case, filed in March, Illumina was accused of infringing the ‘596 patent by making and selling its BeadChip product, as well as other microarray products.

Scripps said in the complaint that the bi-functional molecule incorporated in the manufacture of the Illumina products uses Scripps’ patented technology.

The US District Court for the Southern District of California dismissed the patent infringement case on Monday, November 21, because Scripps failed to provide enough information on how Illumina’s products infringed its patent.

However, the court gave the non-profit organisation a chance to amend the case to include further claims of alleged infringement. This must be done by December 12.

In the complaint, Scripps had asked the court to grant a ruling that the patent had been wilfully infringed by Illumina.

Scripps asked the court to award it damages.