Han Ximin

1824295095@qq.com

MGI, a subsidiary of BGI Group, the world’s largest commercial genetic sequencer manufacturer, recently won a lawsuit after a U.S. federal jury in the state of Delaware ordered Illumina to compensate US$333.8 million for patent infringements over the company’s DNA sequencing system.

This was one of the largest amounts that a Chinese company received overseas through patent damage compensation, a release from Shenzhen Intellectual Property Administration said Saturday.

The jury said that the infringement, which involved patents on two-channel sequencing chemistry technology, has been “willful” and turned down Illumina’s counterclaims.

In an announcement regarding the court’s order, MGI recently said it is pleased that the verdict at the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware supported all its claims.

“The protection of intellectual property is very important to life science and biotechnology companies around the world, and it is also a value that MGI has always adhered to,” BGI said in an announcement.

Complete Genomics, MGI’s U.S. affiliate, filed a patent infringement claim against Illumina in May 2019, accusing Illumina and its customers using various gene sequencers and related reagents that infringed on Complete Genomics’ patents in the U.S.

As BGI’s sequencing equipment business subsidiary, MGI is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of high-throughput genetic sequencers.