Nanopore Sequencing Lawsuit

Illumina accuses Oxford Nanopore Technologies of developing nanopore-based sequencing strategies covered by its patents.

Written byCatherine Offord

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California-based sequencing giant Illumina last week (February 23) announced that it had filed a lawsuit against UK-based Oxford Nanopore Technologies. The dispute concerns technology developed by Oxford Nanopore to sequence DNA using nanopores—technology Illumina claims is covered by its own patents for nanopore-based sequencing approaches.

“Illumina has exclusively licensed the patents in the field of nucleic acid sequencing from the UAB [University of Alabama at Birmingham] Research Foundation and the University of Washington,” the company stated in a press release. Although Illumina does not currently sell a nanopore-based sequencer, it has “made substantial investments to obtain licenses and develop the nanopore sequencing technology,” and “filed the lawsuits to protect its investment and patent rights in this technology,” according to the firm.

Oxford Nanopore was the ...

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Meet the Author

Catherine Offord
After undergraduate research with spiders at the University of Oxford and graduate research with ants at Princeton University, Catherine left arthropods and academia to become a science journalist. She has worked in various guises at The Scientist since 2016. As Senior Editor, she wrote articles for the online and print publications, and edited the magazine’s Notebook, Careers, and Bio Business sections. She reports on subjects ranging from cellular and molecular biology to research misconduct and science policy. Find more of her work at her website.
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