Incyte Sues Rival Invitrogen

Incyte Genomics Inc., which is being sued by rival Invitrogen Corp. over patents for gene cloning, has filed its own patent-infringement suit against Invitrogen.

Incyte’s suit, filed Nov. 21 in federal court in San Diego, accuses Invitrogen of infringing more than a dozen patents relating to gene clones. Some of the patents cover technology developed by Stanford University and licensed exclusively to Incyte, the lawsuit contends.

Invitrogen’s “GeneStorm” clones improperly use certain genetic sequences covered by the Incyte patents, the lawsuit says. Incyte has been “damaged in its collective business and property, including the loss of substantial profits,” the company contends.

Invitrogen spokesman Paul Goodson said Incyte’s suit is “only a defensive tactic in response to our lawsuit. We expect to win.”

In October, Invitrogen, formerly Life Technologies Inc., filed a federal lawsuit in Delaware claiming that Palo Alto-based Incyte has wrongly used Invitrogen’s patented methods to make products for gene libraries sold to research organizations.

Incyte’s suit relates to 12 of the 5,000 gene sequences that Carlsbad, Calif.-based Invitrogen uses in GeneStorm, Goodson said.

Incyte shares rose $2.80, or 17%, to $18.99 in Nasdaq trading Tuesday after Incyte named two former DuPont Co. drug-research executives to lead the company. Invitrogen shares rose $2.63 to $67.99, also on Nasdaq.

The two companies are the only providers of gene sequences developed in the government-sponsored Human Genome Project, Goodson said. Invitrogen had $246.2 million in sales last year, while Incyte had $194.2 million in sales.

Incyte executives weren’t available to comment.