On April 24, 2020, Weil won Federal Circuit affirmation of a $27 million patent jury verdict our team secured in 2018 for Verinata Health and Illumina adverse to Ariosa Diagnostics. Following trial, the federal jury found two of Illumina and Verinata’s patents valid and infringed, and found against Ariosa on its breach of contract counterclaims seeking nearly $100 million.

The appellate court affirmed the Northern District of California’s order denying Ariosa’s motion for judgment as a matter of law, holding that substantial evidence supported the lower court’s decision, and that, among other things, Ariosa “fails to demonstrate that a reasonable jury could not find infringement under the doctrine of equivalents.”

Illumina’s patent infringement dispute with Ariosa dates back to 2012 and centers around cutting-edge technology for prenatal testing for the early diagnosis of fetal abnormalities such as Down’s Syndrome. The patents at the heart of the dispute describe testing methods that offer an alternative to often-unreliable blood tests, and the invasive technique of sampling amniotic fluid.

The Weil team was led by Edward Reines, Co-Head of Weil’s Patent Litigation and Life Sciences practices, and included partner Derek Walter and associate Christopher Lavin. Counsel Robert Vlasis also served on the Weil trial team.