Oxford Nanopore Technologies announced that it intends to sue BGI Group and its subsidiaries for breach of contractual obligations as well as potential breach of patent licensing.
The Oxford, U.K.-based developer of DNA/RNA sequencing technology filed an application on September 9 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to serve subpoenas to Complete BGI subsidiaries Genomics Inc., Innomics Inc., MGI Americas Inc., and others in support of a lawsuit that it intends to file in the courts of England and Wales.
In a statement, Oxford Nanopore said that it “anticipates bringing claims against BGI Tech Solutions Co., Ltd, BGI Group, BGI, Beijing Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, MGI Holdings Co., Limited and MGI Tech Co., Ltd in England for, inter alia, claims for breach of contractual obligations, claims for breach of common law obligations of confidence, breach of duties under the Trade Secrets (enforcement etc.) Regulations 2018, and an entitlement claim to a license of certain patents.”
The technology at issue is BGI's nanopore-based CycloneSeq technology used in its recently launched sequencers.
In its statement, Oxford Nanopore said that while it would not comment on future litigation, the firm "does not believe BGI's nanopore-based sequencing technology is able to be used in commercial products around the World without infringing or misappropriating the Group's substantial portfolio of proprietary rights.”
