illumination sue Last week, Redwood City-based Guardant Health and its co-founders Helmy Eltoukhy and AmirAli Talasaz filed a patent for Guardant on the grounds that they were using Illumina’s intellectual property, and did so while Eltoukhy was still on Illumina’s salary. The San Diego company wants to hand over the patents filed by Guardant to them.
Guardant Health is a liquid biopsy company whose FDA-approved tests help guide treatment decisions for patients with advanced cancer. The company’s ultimate goal is to detect cancer at its earliest stages so that treatments or other interventions can improve long-term survival chances for cancer patients.
Eltoukhy and Talasaz joined the molecular diagnostics company in 2008 and 2009, respectively, according to the lawsuit filed by Illumina. Each signed a contract that they would abide by a number of terms during their employment, including the following: No cand illumination, protect Illumina’s confidential and proprietary information, and Returning Illumina Materials Company after termination of employment
However, in 2011, Eltoukhy and Talasaz both worked at Illumina, but they founded Guardant Health, the lawsuit alleges. Illumina claims the pair created Guardant’s technology using Illumina’s intellectual property and internal company information. The following June 2012, Talasaz left Illumina to work full-time at Guardant.
Illumina said that two days after Talasaz’s last day at Illumina, Eltoukhy asked a colleague for information unrelated to his projects at Illumina, but included Illumina’s confidential intellectual property, and sent the information to his gmail address, It is then forwarded to Talasaz at Guardant. In addition to allegedly sharing confidential information, Eltoukhy used Illumina’s equipment to file patents on Guardant’s behalf, the lawsuit said.
Additionally, when Eltoukhy left Illumina in January 2013, he took 51,000 emails owned by Illumina, 1,400 of which were marked confidential and for internal use only, according to the lawsuit. Illumina said he did not disclose that he took the items when he left.
Apparently, Illumina didn’t know he did it until 2019 when it received a discovery request related to two other lawsuits: Guardant Health v. Personal Genome Diagnostics [No. 1:17-cv-01623-LPS-CJB (D. Del.)] and Guardant Health Inc. v. Foundation Medicine [No. 1:17-cv-01616-LPS-CJB (D. Del.)]In complying with legal requirements, Illumina discovered that Eltoukhy had retained 51,000 emails, including 1,400 confidential, the lawsuit said. Illumina seeks damages related to misappropriation of trade secrets, correction of invention rights, and breach of contract. Illumima is seeking unspecified damages for the actions of Guardant and its founders.
When asked for comment, a Guardant spokeswoman did not initially respond to the allegations, instead raising another point of contention between the two companies: Guardant’s claim that Illumina is filing a lawsuit to try to block competition. In fact, the Illumina spinoff (and later acquired by it) — Grail — is competing directly with some of Guardant’s products.
“Nearly a decade after these patents were filed, Illumina’s lawsuit is a frivolous challenge to our ownership and copyright of intellectual property, the backbone of our important work. We believe Illumina is using the courts to retaliate against us for our acquisition of Illumina Concerns about the antitrust implications of Grail (another blood-based cancer testing provider) and trying to slow us down in the market as we prepare to launch, John Saia, senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of Guardant, said in a statement. Statement issued last week After Illumina sued.
However, when pressed further on the validity of Illumina’s claim that the two executives exchanged Illumina confidential information while Eltoukhy was still employed by Illumina, another spokeswoman responded:
“We do not intend to comment on specific allegations at this time,” Guardant spokeswoman Michele Rest said in an email. “I would like to reiterate that no Illumina trade secrets or confidential information was used to develop Guardant Health’s industry-leading assay. .”
Although they have a quarrelit appears that the two companies currently plan to continue working together.
“Our long-term supply agreement with Illumina remains in place and our work serving patients will not be interrupted,” Saia said in the statement. “However, we cannot stand idly by and allow unfair practices in the marketplace or false claims about our intellectual property, which we will vigorously defend. The stakes are simply too high for cancer patients who depend on our vital work.”
Photo: zimmytws, Getty Images
