Illumina, Inc. Named Senior Party in Interference Proceeding Challenging Ownership Rights for Patent Covering Affymetrix (Santa Clara, California) Technology

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) today announced the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has declared a patent interference between an allowable Illumina patent application and U.S. Patent Number 6,858,412. The '412 patent relates to the molecular inversion probe genotyping technology obtained by Affymetrix in the $120 million acquisition of ParAllele BioScience announced in October of 2005.