Seattle-based Parse Biosciences received a favorable decision against10x Genomics in an ongoing patent dispute.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board, an administrative tribunal, invalidated 10x's claims against Parse for one of its patents. Pleasanton, California-based 10x filed the lawsuit in August 2022, and the lawsuit contests multiple other patents.
“We believe in providing the research community unfettered access to tools that help them get to discovery faster and more efficiently,” Parse co-founder and CEO Alex Rosenberg said in a statement. “With this ruling, Parse remains committed to democratizing and advancing high throughput solutions for single cell genomics aimed at accelerating our understanding of the biological world.”
The decision is a setback for 10x, which has also filed patent lawsuits against Seattle-based research device maker NanoString Technologies, Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech Vizgen and Palo Alto, California-based Curio Bioscience.
A 10x spokesperson said the company disagrees with the decision and plans to appeal.
Related coverage
Parse spun out of the University of Washington in 2018, but Rosenberg and Charlie Roco, the company's co-founder and chief technology officer, started working on the tech in 2014. The company offers single-cell sequencing technology to allow researchers to better understand the biology of an individual cell. Parse sells reagents and software to help clients analyze data.
10x, founded in 2012, makes imaging tools, as well as software and analysis tools. The company generated $153.1 million in revenue during the second quarter, up 4% year over year.
The suit against Parse alleges patent infringement regarding its gene analysis kits, which 10x has claimed infringe on the company’s single-cell genomics tech. A judge in September of last year had rejected Parse’s bid to dismiss the lawsuit.
Parse raised $50 million in December. The company had more than 100 employees at the time, with about 70% of them based in Seattle. In January, Parse acquired an analysis software company called Biomage for an undisclosed amount. Parse has 2,000 customers, according to a news release.
NanoString's patent litigation battles with 10x decimated NanoString. Former CEO Brad Gray blamed NanoString's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in February on "the extraordinary campaign of litigation instigated by 10x Genomics.” Scientific instrument company Bruker Corp. acquired NanoString in May for $392.6 million, ending bankruptcy proceedings but reopening the company to patent litigation. Bruker terminated Gray and former NanoString Chief Financial Officer Thomas Bailey once the deal closed.
For more stories like this one, sign up for Seattle Inno newsletters from the Puget Sound Business Journal and the American Inno network.
