10x Genomics defeats startup's attempt to end gene-analysis patent case

10x Genomics

14/09/2023 19:22

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      10x said Parse Biosciences' analysis kits infringed
patents
    

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      Court rejected Parse arguments that 10x inventions were
unpatentable
    

  
    By Blake Brittain
       Sept 14 (Reuters) - Genomics startup Parse Biosciences
lost its bid to dismiss a patent-infringement lawsuit brought by
rival 10x Genomics  TXG.O  and Stanford University on Thursday,
when a Delaware federal court denied Parse's request to declare
the 10x patents invalid.
    U.S. District Judge Joel Slomsky rejected Parse's argument
that the patents, related to finding and analyzing genetic
information, covered patent-ineligible abstract ideas and
natural phenomena.
    Representatives for Parse did not immediately respond to a
request for comment on Thursday. 10x's chief legal officer Eric
Whitaker said that the company was "very pleased" with the
decision.
    10x licenses some of the patents from Stanford.
Representatives for the university did not immediately respond
to a request for comment on the decision.
    The lawsuit, filed last year, accuses Parse's gene-analysis
kits of infringing patents related to 10x's Chromium single-cell
genomics platform.
    Single-cell genomics enables scientists to study genes on a
cell-by-cell basis, unlike traditional gene-analysis technology.
10x said in the lawsuit that its products have led to
breakthrough discoveries about diseases like COVID-19, cystic
fibrosis and cancer.
    The court described the 10x patents as covering
"compositions and laboratory methods used to uncover genetic
information that can then be used to better understand the
genetic underpinnings of human life and disease."
    Parse asked the court last October to dismiss the case. It
said some of the patents covered "not an invention, but rather a
discovery about naturally occurring enzymes," and others were
related to "the abstract idea of using a tag to label DNA from a
cell to keep track of where it came from."
    Slomsky on Thursday declined to invalidate any of the
patents at an early stage of the case, finding that they all
covered patent-eligible advances to genomics technology.
    
    The case is 10x Genomics Inc v. Parse Biosciences Inc, U.S.
District Court for the District of Delaware, No. 1:22-cv-01117.
    For 10x and Stanford: Nicholas Groombridge of Groombridge Wu
Baughman & Stone
    For Parse: Edward Reines of Weil Gotshal & Manges
    
    Read more:
    10x Genomics lawsuit says startup copied gene-analysis
technology

 (Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington)
 ((blake.brittain@tr.com; +1 (202) 938-5713;))