PR88211

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 24, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

A judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has

granted MGI's motion for leave to amend to add a new inequitable conduct

defense of patent infringement lawsuit that Illumina filed against MGI in

February 2020 (Case No. 20-cv-01465).

During this patent prosecution process, MGI alleges that Illumina intentionally

withheld or failed to disclose a reference to a paper by Terez Kovacs and Laslo

Otvos ("Kovacs")[1]. MGI asserts that the Kovacs reference is material, both

because it discloses the same methodology that two of the inventors of the

7,541,444 patent used to convert nucleosides to nucleotides and also because it

provides a motivation for a person of ordinary skill in the art ("POSITA") to

convert nucleosides to nucleotides.

The Court's order concludes that MGI has acted with reasonable diligence,

amendment would not be unduly prejudicial to Illumina, and MGI's proposed

inequitable conduct claim is not clearly futile under the relevant pleading

standards. Accordingly, MGI's motion for leave to amend is granted.

MGI has already initiated an antitrust violation complaint towards Illumina in

the United States in Jan 2021. The complaint, filed recently in the California

Federal Court, pleads many instances of anticompetitive behavior including

asserting at least three patents against MGI companies in an unlawful and

fraudulent manner.

About MGI

MGI Tech Co., Ltd. (MGI), a subsidiary of BGI Group, is committed to enabling

effective and affordable healthcare solutions for all. Based on its proprietary

technology, MGI produces sequencing devices, equipment, consumables and

reagents to support life science research, medicine and healthcare. MGI's

multi-omics platforms include genetic sequencing and medical imaging. Providing

real-time, comprehensive, life-long solutions, its mission is to develop and

promote advanced life science tools for future healthcare. For more information

please visit https://en.mgi-tech.com. Or connect on social media:

https://twitter.com/MGI_BGI or https://cn.linkedin.com/company/mgi-bgi.

[1] The paper titled "Simple Synthesis of 5-Vinyl and 5-Ethynyl- 2'

Deoxyuridine- 5'- Triphosphates", was published in Tetrahedron Letters, Vol.

29, pp 4525-4528, 1988.

Source: MGI Tech Co., Ltd.