Helicos’ Biological Sample Analysis Patent Found Invalid by District Court in Delaware

Helicos Biosciences Corp.'s patent for the analysis of biological samples is invalid due to lack of written description and lack of enablement, a federal district court ruled Aug. 27, granting defendant Illumina Inc.'s motion for summary judgment (Helicos Biosciences Corp. v. Illumina Inc., D. Del., 1:10-cv-00735-SLR-MPT, 8/28/12).

The patent was the last of three originally asserted by Helicos in a lawsuit against some of Illumina’s sequencing products, and the claims against Illumina were the last in litigation that at one point included Pacific Biosciences of California (PacBio) and Life Technologies Corp. as defendants.

According to the initial ...