UPDATE: Illumina Announces Outcome of First Phase of Its Patent Litigation Against LadaTech

Illumina, Inc. ILMN announced today that a federal jury in Wilmington, Delaware, found that certain of Illumina's TruSeq sample preparation and cluster generation kits and products infringe U.S. Patent No. 6,107,023, owned by LadaTech LLC, a patent holding company. Other Illumina sample preparation kits, such as its Nextera kits, were not accused of infringement in the lawsuit. In addition, United States District Court Judge Sue L. Robinson in an earlier order granted summary judgment that Illumina cluster generation kits and products, when used with sample preparation kits made or sold by third parties, do not infringe the patent. The case will now proceed to its next phase in which Illumina will have the opportunity to demonstrate that the jury's verdict should not stand because the patent is unenforceable. The jury's verdict is therefore preliminary, and in the meantime Illumina plans to support its customers with the products that are the subject of the suit. In addition, the damages phase of the case has not been scheduled and will not proceed, if at all, until at least 2013, after all appropriate appeals of the jury verdict have been taken. Illumina does not expect that damages, if any, resulting from this lawsuit would have a significant effect on its consolidated financial position, liquidity or results of operations.