May 30, 2019

BGI strikes back at Illumina in tit-for-tat patent infringement battle

May 30, 2019/ Robert P. Ruggiero, phd

A subsidiary of the Chinese sequencing giant BGI is filing a patent infringement suit agains the US sequencing giant. The BGI subsidiary, Complete Genomics, filed its complaint in the the District Court of Deleware, claiming infringement on a patent for “methods and compositions for efficient base calling in sequencing reactions,” which is all pretty central to high throughput sequencing. This appears to be a response to Illumina filing a complaint earlier this month against BGI Europe and Latvia MGI Tech, another BGI subsidiaries, earlier this year. These are probably just the early stages of what is likely to be a long series of antagonistic maneuvers between giants. It is unlikely that this Coke-versus-Pepsi style competition will do much to reduce the dominance of these groups, but one can hope that as this battle plays out some of the smaller sequencing players will grow and insert a little more competition into the market.

All the links in this post are from Genome-Web, another excellent genome news source.

March 30, 2019

Illumina retaliates against BGI

March 30, 2019/ Robert P. Ruggiero, phd

Illumina Files Patent Infringement Suit Against BGI in Germany

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar 29, 2019--Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) today announced that it has filed a patent infringement suit against BGI Group’s subsidiary, Latvia MGI Tech SIA, in the Düsseldorf Regional Court in Germany. The complaint alleges that BGI’s sequencing products, including the BGISeq-500, MGISeq-2000, and related chemistry reagents, infringe EP 1 530 578 B1. This patent covers Illumina’s proprietary sequencing-by-synthesis chemistry.

“Illumina will not tolerate the unauthorized, infringing use of its patented technology. Illumina filed this suit to defend the substantial investments we have made in our industry leading sequencing technology, as validated in our global intellectual property portfolio. We will continue to monitor the field and file patent suits where appropriate when our patents are infringed,” said Charles Dadswell, Senior Vice President and General Counsel for Illumina.

Important reminder that your genome is your property

March 16, 2019/ Robert P. Ruggiero, phd

Your invaluable genome

Genomic data is the currency of a new era of medicine that promises incredible advances. Here, bioinformatician Nana Mensah explains why…

In the race for greatest medical revolution of the 21st century, genomics is undoubtedly a frontrunner. Those outside of the field, however, might still find themselves wondering: 'what's all the fuss about?' There are many reasons why genomics is revolutionary, but data is at the root of it all. As genomics is used more and more in mainstream care, it becomes ever more important to understand the great power and value of this new kind of data, writes Nana Mensah.

From cell to computer

While the word ‘genome’ refers to the entire sequence of DNA of an individual organism, the term ‘genomic data’ refers to its digital representation – a large data file resulting from the sequencing process.

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