Verinata Health, Inc. v. Ariosa Diagnostics, Inc.

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
DecidedApril 24, 2020
Docket18-2198
StatusUnpublished

This text of Verinata Health, Inc. v. Ariosa Diagnostics, Inc. (Verinata Health, Inc. v. Ariosa Diagnostics, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Verinata Health, Inc. v. Ariosa Diagnostics, Inc., (Fed. Cir. 2020).

Opinion

Case: 18-2198 Document: 92 Page: 1 Filed: 04/24/2020

NOTE: This disposition is nonprecedential.

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ______________________

VERINATA HEALTH, INC., ILLUMINA, INC., Plaintiffs-Appellants

v.

ARIOSA DIAGNOSTICS, INC, ROCHE MOLECULAR SYSTEMS, INC., Defendants-Cross-Appellants ______________________

2018-2198, 2018-2303, 2018-2305, 2018-2306, 2018-2317 ______________________

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in Nos. 3:12-cv-05501-SI, 3:14-cv-01921-SI, 3:15-cv-02216-SI, Senior Judge Susan Y. Illston. ______________________

Decided: April 24, 2020 ______________________

EDWARD R. REINES, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, Red- wood Shores, CA, argued for plaintiffs-appellants. Also represented by CHRISTOPHER SHAWN LAVIN. Plaintiff-ap- pellant Illumina, Inc. also represented by DEREK C. WALTER.

MARK CHRISTOPHER FLEMING, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, Boston, MA, argued for defendants- Case: 18-2198 Document: 92 Page: 2 Filed: 04/24/2020

cross-appellants. Also represented by TIMOTHY ANDREW COOK, KATHERINE P. KIECKHAFER; CHRISTOPHER ASTA, THOMAS SAUNDERS, Washington, DC; ROBERT J. GUNTHER, JR., OMAR KHAN, CHRISTOPHER R. NOYES, New York, NY; DAVID ISAAC GINDLER, ALAN J. HEINRICH, Irell & Manella LLP, Los Angeles, CA; LISA GLASSER, Newport Beach, CA. ______________________

Before REYNA, WALLACH, and HUGHES, Circuit Judges. REYNA, Circuit Judge. After trial on the merits, a jury found two U.S. patents valid and infringed. Ariosa Diagnostics, Inc., and Roche Molecular Systems, Inc., moved for judgment as a matter of law on invalidity and noninfringement. Verinata Health, Inc., and Illumina, Inc., moved for a permanent in- junction, supplemental damages, an accounting, and pre- and post-judgment interest. The district court denied the parties’ motions. Verinata and Illumina appeal the denial of the permanent injunction, supplemental damages, an ac- counting, and pre-judgment interest. Ariosa and Roche cross-appeal the denial of judgment as a matter of law on invalidity and noninfringement. We conclude that sub- stantial evidence supports the district court’s denial of Ari- osa’s motion for judgment as a matter of law on noninfringement and invalidity. We also conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion by denying Veri- nata and Illumina’s motion for a permanent injunction, supplemental damages, an accounting, and pre-judgment interest. We affirm. BACKGROUND A Appellant Illumina, Inc., develops, manufactures, and markets integrated systems and tools for DNA analysis. Verinata Health, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Illu- mina (collectively “Illumina”), developed and offered a non- Case: 18-2198 Document: 92 Page: 3 Filed: 04/24/2020

VERINATA HEALTH, INC. v. ARIOSA DIAGNOSTICS, INC. 3

invasive prenatal test (“NIPT”) for the early identification of fetal chromosomal abnormalities. Appellee Ariosa Diag- nostics, Inc., also conducts research and development in the field of NIPT for fetal chromosomal abnormalities. Roche Molecular Systems, Inc., acquired Ariosa in Decem- ber 2014. In an effort to “streamline issues in the [l]itiga- tion and avoid unnecessary discovery,” the parties stipulated that “Ariosa will be deemed the Defendant re- sponsible for the conduct that Illumina has accused of in- fringing the asserted claims” and that Roche would be dismissed from the litigation and subsequently “deemed a party to any judgment to the same extent as Ariosa.” J.A. 11606-07. Illumina owns U.S. Patent No. 7,955,794 (the “’794 pa- tent”), which is directed to custom DNA assay optimization techniques. The ’794 patent identifies seven inventors, in- cluding Dr. John Stuelpnagel and Dr. Arnold Oliphant. Dr. Stuelpnagel was a co-founder of Illumina, and Dr. Oliphant served as Illumina’s executive vice president of scientific operations. The ’794 patent describes the detection of DNA target sequences by introducing probes with complementary se- quences into a sample and observing whether hybridiza- tion occurs. An excerpt of claim 1 identifying the elements relevant to this appeal is set forth below: A multiplex for determining whether a sample con- tains at least 100 different target sequences, com- prising: a) providing a sample which may contain at least 100 different single-stranded target sequences attached to a first solid support; b) contacting said target sequences with a probe set comprising more than 100 differ- ent single-stranded probes, wherein each of Case: 18-2198 Document: 92 Page: 4 Filed: 04/24/2020

said more than 100 different probes com- prises: i) a first universal priming site, wherein each of said more than 100 different probes has identical uni- versal priming sites, and ii) a target specific domain, such that different double-stranded hy- bridization complexes are formed, each of the different hybridization complexes comprising one of said more than 100 different single- stranded probes and one of the dif- ferent single-stranded target se- quences from the sample;

... d) contacting said probes of the hybridiza- tion complexes with a first enzyme and forming different modified probes; e) contacting said modified probes with: i) at least a first primer that hy- bridizes to said universal priming site; ii) NTPs; and iii) an extension enzyme; wherein said different modified probes are ampli- fied and forming different amplicons; f) immobilizing said different amplicons to a second solid support, and g) detecting said different amplicons immo- bilized to said second solid support, thereby Case: 18-2198 Document: 92 Page: 5 Filed: 04/24/2020

VERINATA HEALTH, INC. v. ARIOSA DIAGNOSTICS, INC. 5

determining whether the sample contains at least 100 different target sequences. ’794 patent col. 68 ll. 46-67, col. 68 l. 65-col. 69 l. 12. Verinata owns U.S. Patent No. 8,318,430 (the “’430 pa- tent”), which is directed to methods for NIPT screening of fetal chromosomal abnormalities. An excerpt of claim 1 is appended below identifying the elements relevant to this appeal: 1. A method for determining a presence or absence of a fetal aneuploidy in a fetus for each of a plural- ity of maternal blood samples . . . comprising fetal and maternal cell-free genomic DNA, said method comprising: ... (e) . . . enumerating sequence reads corre- sponding to enriched and indexed fetal and maternal non-random polynucleotide se- quences . . . ; and (f) . . . determining the presence or absence of a fetal aneuploidy comprising using a number of enumerated sequence reads cor- responding to the first chromosome and a number of enumerated sequence reads cor- responding to the reference chromosome of (e). ’430 patent at col. 63. B In 2008, both Dr. Stuelpnagel and Dr. Oliphant left Il- lumina. By late 2009, Dr. Stuelpnagel launched Ariosa. Dr. Oliphant rejoined Dr. Stuelpnagel at Ariosa shortly thereafter. They sought to develop a NIPT for the detection of fetal aneuploidies, which can lead to conditions such as Down Syndrome. Between 2010 and 2011, Ariosa provided Case: 18-2198 Document: 92 Page: 6 Filed: 04/24/2020

Illumina, as a prospective investor in Ariosa, technical in- formation about its product proposals under development. In January 2012, seven months after the ’794 patent is- sued, Ariosa entered into a three-year sale and supply agreement (“SSA”) with Illumina. J.A. 4326, J.A. 4349- 4350 (excerpts from SSA). C In March 2012, Ariosa launched a DNA-sequencing test called the Harmony Prenatal Test. The test consisted of materials supplied by Illumina. The Harmony Prenatal Test is a multiplex method that analyzes fetal cell-free DNA (or cfDNA). Ariosa designed two versions of the Har- mony test—“Harmony V1” and “Harmony V2.” For pur- poses of this appeal, we focus our discussion of the relevant technology on Harmony V2.

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