Life Technologies Initiates Suit Against Illumina Alleging Patent Infringement
SAN DIEGO–Illumina, Inc. (Nasdaq:ILMN) today announced that it has been served with a complaint filed on September 21, 2009 in the U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware naming Illumina as a defendant. The complaint names as plaintiffs Life Technologies Corporation; Applied Biosystems LLC; a Russian research institute; two individuals listed as inventors on the asserted patents; and another individual who appears to have an ownership interest in the patents. The complaint alleges among other things that Illumina’s Genome Analyzer System infringes U.S. Patent Nos. 5,616,478; 5,958,698; and 6,001,568. These patents, which are directed to methods for DNA amplification, expire in 2012 and 2014.
“We will defend this suit vigorously,” said Jay Flatley, President and CEO of Illumina. “We respect the valid and enforceable intellectual property rights of others and, consistent with that policy, we believe that we acted properly with respect to these patents. In the meantime, we will continue to defend and support our customers against Life Technologies’ unfounded claims.”
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.
“Safe Harbor” Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: 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 Illumina’s ability (i) 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) to manufacture robust instrumentation and reagents technology, 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 intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements beyond the date of this release.

