Illumina’s Win Against Researchers’ Trade Secret Claims Affirmed

A group of genetics researchers waited too long to bring claims that Illumina Inc. and others misused their trade secrets in patent applications, the Second Circuit affirmed.

The four researchers said they collaborated with Cornell University to invent a novel method for diagnosing human genetic defects by extracting DNA from a sample and matching it up with an array of DNA sequences. The researchers said they learned in 2015 that the defendants had misappropriated their trade secrets by filing patent applications using information from a confidential grant proposal and proprietary DNA “zip code” sequences, and sued in 2018.

But a ...