Illumina, Inc. (Nasdaq:ILMN) today announced that, together with Solexa its wholly owned subsidiary, it has filed its initial response to the lawsuit brought by Life Technologies and Applied Biosystems on September 21, 2009 in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware. In their answer, Illumina and Solexa have denied all of Life’s and AB’s allegations of patent infringement, and have asserted that AB’s licensed patents are invalid. In their counterclaims, Illumina and Solexa have sued Life and AB for infringement of four Solexa patents by Life’s SOLiD® sequencing system. These four patents (U.S. Patent Nos. 6,831,994; 6,654,505; 7,232,656; and 7,598,035 having expiration dates falling between December 2017 and July 2019), stem from three different patent families and are applicable to various aspects of the SOLiD system, specifically sample preparation, data gathering and genome analysis. As remedy, Illumina seeks (i) a permanent injunction against further sales of the SOLiD system, (ii) the destruction of infringing SOLiD system products, and (iii) damages for Life and AB’s infringement of these four patents.
“While we strongly prefer to compete in the marketplace rather than in the courtroom, we are determined to protect our position in the market so that our customers can continue to benefit from the technological advances Illumina has brought to the field of DNA sequencing,” said Jay Flatley, President and CEO of Illumina. “We also stand ready to assert our patent rights in court whenever necessary.” Illumina and Solexa are involved in an additional patent infringement suit against Applied Biosystems in which the SOLiD system is charged with infringing other Solexa patents. That suit, currently on appeal, is also a countersuit to the one filed by Applied Biosystems against Solexa in December 2006.
About Illumina
Illumina (www.illumina.com) is the leading developer, manufacturer, and marketer of next-generation life-science tools and integrated systems for the analysis of genetic variation and biological function. Using our proprietary technologies, we provide a comprehensive line of products and services that currently serve the sequencing, genotyping, and gene expression markets, and we expect to enter the market for molecular diagnostics. Our customers include leading genomic research centers, pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, clinical research organizations, and biotechnology companies. Our tools provide researchers around the world with the performance, throughput, cost effectiveness, and flexibility necessary to perform the billions of genetic tests needed to extract valuable medical information from advances in genomics and proteomics. We believe this information will enable researchers to correlate genetic variation and biological function, which will enhance drug discovery and clinical research, allow diseases to be detected earlier, and permit better choices of drugs for individual patients.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in any forward-looking statements are (i) our ability to develop and commercialize further our BeadArray™, VeraCode®, and Solexa® technologies and to deploy new sequencing, gene expression, and genotyping products and applications for our technology platforms, (ii) our ability to manufacture robust instrumentation and reagents technology, and (iii) reductions in the funding levels to our primary customers, including as the result of timing and amount of funding provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, together with other factors detailed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including our recent filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q or in information disclosed in public conference calls, the date and time of which are released beforehand. We disclaim any obligation to and do not intend to update any forward-looking statements after the date of this release.
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Illumina, Inc.
Investors:
Peter J. Fromen
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Director, Investor Relations
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pfromen@illumina.com
or
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Wilson
Grabill
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+858-882-6822
wgrabill@illumina.com
