Facts

Defendants Solexa Inc., Illumina Inc. and Stephen C. Macevicz owned U.S. Patent Nos. 5,750,341, 5,969,119 and 6,306,597 for a DNA sequencing method. Plaintiff Applera Corporation alleged that the patents should have been assigned to it as they were created by Macevicz when he was employed by Applied Biosystems, a related entity. Defendants filed a counterclaim alleging patent infringement regarding Applied Biosystems' SOLid sequencing system. Applied Biosystems denied infringement and claimed the patents were invalid.

The court issued a summary judgment order finding that the SOLid system did not constitute infringement of patents 5,750,341 and 6,306,597. Trial began to determine whether the patents were invalid and whether Applied Biosystems infringed patent 5,969,119. The trial was bifurcated.

Result

Jury returned a defense verdict in phase one, holding that Macevicz was not required to assign patents to Applied Biosystems. The jury also found in favor of Applied Biosystems, concluding that it did not commit patent infringement. In phase two, judgment of noninfringement for patents 5,750,341 and 5,969,119 was entered. Based on the court's claim construction for patent 6,306,597, Applied Biosystems stipulated that its one-base encoding platform infringed patent 6,306,597, and Solexa stipulated that patent 6,306,597 was rendered invalid.

Deliberation

seven hours

Poll

8-0

Length

17 days