SAN DIEGO, March 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Sequenom,
Inc. (NASDAQ: SQNM), a life sciences company committed to enabling
healthier lives through the development of innovative products and
services, announced that it filed a petition today with the Supreme
Court of the United States to
review decisions by lower Federal courts that the claims of
Sequenom's U.S. Patent No. 6,258,540 ("'540 Patent") are not patent
eligible under the patent eligibility criteria established by the
Supreme Court's Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus
Laboratories decision. In the petition, Sequenom urges the
Court to hear the case because the Court is uniquely suited to
reconcile and interpret the patent eligibility criteria established
in its Mayo decision. Those overly-expansive
patent eligibility criteria have not only negatively impacted
Sequenom's patent, but have put into jeopardy the patentability of
existing and future diagnostic method patent claims.
![SEQUENOM logo. SEQUENOM logo.](http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnvar/20160225/337675LOGO)
The judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
felt "bound by the sweeping language of the test set out
in Mayo" to hold the '540 patent invalid. The
judges, and the twelve organizations that supported Sequenom at the
Court of Appeals, recognized that an expansive application of the
Mayo test for patent eligibility, such as in this case, will
lead to untenable results—invalidating previously irreproachable
inventions and precipitating what Court of Appeals Judge Lourie
called "a crisis of patent law and medical innovation." The
Court of Appeals emphasized that the only clarifications that can
avoid such results "must come from the Supreme Court."
"We continue to believe that the groundbreaking techniques
embodied in the '540 patent are eligible for patent protection,"
said Dirk van den Boom, Ph.D.,
President and CEO of Sequenom. "More broadly, we believe our case
provides a compelling opportunity for the Supreme Court to clarify
patent eligibility criteria to protect the significant investments
made by Sequenom and other life science organizations that have
undoubtedly advanced the standard of patient care and treatment, as
well as encouraging future such investments."
Sequenom believes that the existing lower court ruling will have
little on-going business impact as the Company has been operating
under the District Court's invalidity ruling since October, 2013,
as well as the pooling arrangement of NIPT intellectual property
entered into with Illumina, Inc. in December, 2014.
Separate and apart from any U.S. Supreme Court review of
Sequenom's '540 patent, the Company maintains valid and enforceable
patents with claims equivalent to those of the '540 patent in
Europe, Japan, Hong
Kong, Canada and
Australia. Sequenom and Illumina are currently pursuing
infringement actions in some of those jurisdictions.
About Sequenom
Sequenom, Inc. (NASDAQ: SQNM) is a
pioneering genetic testing company dedicated to women's health
through the development of innovative products and services.
The Company serves patients and physicians by providing early
patient management information. For more information, visit
www.sequenom.com.
About Sequenom Laboratories
Sequenom Laboratories™, a
CAP-accredited and CLIA-certified molecular diagnostics laboratory,
has developed a broad range of laboratory tests, with a focus
principally on prenatal care. Branded under the names
HerediT®, HerediT® UNIVERSAL,
MaterniT® GENOME, MaterniT21® PLUS,
NextView®, SensiGene® and VisibiliT™, these
molecular genetic laboratory-developed tests provide early patient
management information for obstetricians, geneticists, and maternal
fetal medicine specialists. Sequenom Laboratories is changing
the landscape in genetic diagnostics using proprietary cutting edge
technologies. Visit www.laboratories.sequenom.com and follow
@SequenomLabs.
SEQUENOM®, HerediT®,
MaterniT®, NextView®, SensiGene®,
VisibiliT™ and Sequenom Laboratories™ are
trademarks of Sequenom, Inc. All other trademarks and service marks
are the property of their respective owners.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements contained in this press release regarding matters
that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements"
within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995, including statements regarding the development of
innovative products and services and the expected impact of the
Court's decision. Because such statements are subject to
risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from
those expressed or implied by such forward-looking
statements. Risks are described more fully in the
Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
including without limitation the Company's most recent Annual
Report on Form 10-K and other documents subsequently filed with or
furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. All
forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak
only as of the date on which they were made. The Company
undertakes no obligation to update such statements to reflect
events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on
which they were made.
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SOURCE Sequenom, Inc.