MENLO PARK, Calif.–Pacific Biosciences, a private company developing third-generation single molecule DNA sequencing technology, announced today that it has been named the Senior Party in a patent interference declared by the United States Patent and Trademark Office with Life Technologies Corporation (LIFE). Pacific Biosciences was accorded Senior Party status based upon patent priority dates that precede the Life Technologies filing by nearly 20 months.

An interference is the process whereby the USPTO determines which party is entitled to a patent when, as in the current case, a patent and a patent application are claiming the same invention. Patent interference decisions are based upon who was first to invent the claimed invention, for example, who first conceived of the invention and then reduced it to practice either through an actual reduction to practice or the filing of a patent application.

The claims at issue in the interference relate to particular methods of single molecule DNA sequencing by incorporation. The patent in question, U.S. Patent No. 7,329,492, was issued to Visigen Biotechnologies – a company that was recently acquired by Life Technologies Corporation, although based upon a filing date 20 months after Pacific Biosciences’ priority date.

“We remain highly confident in the strength of our intellectual property portfolio and are optimistic that our substantial lead in developing the technology at issue will result in a favorable outcome for our company in this case,” said Hugh Martin, chairman and chief executive officer of Pacific Biosciences.

About Pacific Biosciences

Pacific Biosciences is a private company based in Menlo Park, California. The company was founded in 2004 with the goal of developing a transformative SMRT™ (single molecule real time) DNA sequencing platform that will become the new gold standard for genetic analysis. The SMRT™ technology is built upon two key innovations that overcome major challenges facing the field of DNA sequencing. The first is the SMRT™ chip, which enables observation of individual fluorophores against a dense background of labeled nucleotides by maintaining a high signal-to-noise ratio. The second are phospholinked nucleotides, which produce a completely natural DNA strand through fast, accurate, and processive DNA synthesis. The company has received an Advanced Sequencing Technology Award grant from the NHGRI (National Human Genome Research Institute) to develop the $1,000 genome. More information is available at www.pacificbiosciences.com.