New Sequencing Suit Involving Ion Torrent
The patent applications that Dr. Rothberg assigned to 454 resulted in the ‘305 ‘102 and ‘380 patents. According to the complaint, “The Accused Products have no substantial use other than for performing emulsion PCR and sequencing the products of emulsion PCR.” 454 exited its DNA sequencer business in 2013 (see IBO 10/31/13).
Wilmington, DE 7/13/15—454 Life Sciences, a Roche business, has filed a patent infringement suit in the US District Court in Delaware against Ion Torrent, a Thermo Fisher Scientific business. The complaint alleges infringement of three patents related to performing emulsion PCR and DNA sequencing of emulsion PCR products: US Patent Nos. 7,323,305 (Methods of Amplifying and Sequencing Nucleic Acids), 8,748,102 (Bead Emulsion Nucleic Acid Amplification) and 8,765,380 (Bead Emulsion Nucleic Acid Amplification). The alleged infringing products include the Ion OneTouch 2 System, the Ion Chef System, the Ion Personal Genome Machine and chip kits. Among the remedies requested by the plaintiff are compensatory damages and a permanent injunction. In addition, 454 seeks a declaration of liability for breach of an implied covenant of good faith as part of 2004 agreements between Jonathan Rothberg, Ion Torrent’s founder, and 454 that assigned two patent applications to 454. Thermo has not yet answered the complaint.
