Court Injunction Prevents Qiagen From Marketing Its NGS System in U.S.

 A federal district court has granted Illumina’s request for a preliminary injunction to stop Qiagen from U.S. marketing of its GeneReader NGS System, which Illumina claims infringes its DNA sequencing technology.

Illumina claims its ’537 patent, which covers labeled nucleotides used in DNA sequencing technology, was infringed by Qiagen and its subsidiaries when it developed the GeneReader NGS System, which it planned to distribute later this year.

Illumina accused Qiagen of infringing four different claims with its GeneReader product. The ’537 patent claims a method for labeling nucleotides using an “azido group” as the protecting group, rather than a phosphate group. — Tamra Sami