The offices of gene sequencing company Illumina Inc are shown in San Diego. REUTERS/Mike Blake

(Reuters) - Illumina Inc and BGI Group's MGI Tech Co and Complete Genomics have settled U.S. litigation over their rival DNA-sequencing technology, the companies said Thursday.

Illumina has agreed to pay $325 million to end the U.S. litigation, they said, following recent jury verdicts in patent cases in California and Delaware. The settlement also resolves a pending antitrust lawsuit by the BGI affiliates against Illumina in California.

An MGI release and an Illumina filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Illumina will receive a license to the BGI affiliates' patents, and that the companies would not sue each other for patent or antitrust violations in the United States for the next three years.

MGI declined further comment. Illumina and one of its attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Complete Genomics is a U.S. subsidiary of MGI, which is an affiliate of BGI Group. It and San Diego-based Illumina are both major providers of genome-analysis technology used to detect genetic diseases.

The companies have been embroiled in a global legal battle over their respective sequencing technologies, with court cases in countries including Germany, Denmark, Switzerland and Turkey. The Thursday settlement announcement only refers to the U.S. cases.

A Delaware jury awarded Complete Genomics $333 million in May after finding Illumina's "two-channel" sequencing systems and kits to prepare DNA fragments for sequencing violated its patent rights.

Illumina earlier won $8 million and a temporary ban on U.S. sales of some BGI Group sequencers based on its own patent claims in San Francisco federal court.

The cases are Complete Genomics Inc v. Illumina Inc, U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, No. 1:19-cv-00970; Complete Genomics Inc v. Illumina Inc, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No. 3:21-cv-00217; and Illumina Inc v. BGI Genomics Co Ltd, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No. 3:20-cv-01465.

For the BGI affiliates: David Bilsker of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan

Source: Reuters

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