SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) released the following statement by Jay Flatley, its Chief Executive Officer, in response to new patent infringement suits filed yesterday by Affymetrix in Delaware, the United Kingdom and Germany. As of this time, Illumina has yet to be served with these suits.
“We are disappointed to see that Affymetrix continues to choose to compete with Illumina in the court room rather than in the market place. Our policy is to respect the valid and enforceable intellectual property rights of others and to take licenses where appropriate. In that regard, we believe that we do not infringe any valid claims of the patents asserted by Affymetrix in its recent complaints. All of these patents expire in or before 2010, except for two European patents. These patents (except European Patent 0799897) belong to the same family and are related to some of the patents that Affymetrix asserted against us in a litigation it commenced in 2004. We will continue to defend and support our customers against Affymetrix’ unfounded claims.
