Illumina and Sequenom Pool Noninvasive Prenatal Testing Intellectual Property and End Outstanding Patent Disputes

Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) and Sequenom, Inc. (NASDAQ: SQNM) today announced they have agreed to settle all pending infringement claims and other disputes between Sequenom and Verinata Health, Inc. The parties will pool their owned and in-licensed intellectual property directed to noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT), including patents that will remain the subject of ongoing interference proceedings. Under the agreement, Illumina will have exclusive worldwide rights to utilize the pooled intellectual property to develop and sell in-vitro diagnostic kits for NIPT and to license third-party laboratories wishing to develop and sell their own laboratory-developed NIPT tests under the collection of pooled patents. In addition, Sequenom and Illumina will each have rights to utilize all pooled patents to develop and sell their own respective laboratory-developed NIPT tests. The parties will share the revenue from the patent pool and Illumina will pay Sequenom a royalty on sales of in-vitro diagnostic kits for NIPT. Read more.