Munich court finds Illumina infringes Element sequencing patent, orders injunction and product recall

Context: Illumina is the dominant player in next-generation DNA sequencing, commanding an estimated 80% to 90% share of the global market for short-read sequencing instruments and consumables. Element Biosciences is a San Diego-based sequencing startup founded in 2017 by three former Illumina employees, offering a lower-cost rival platform built on its own “avidity” chemistry. Illumina sued Element in the District of Delaware in May 2025 over five patents related to automated gene sequencing (May 16, 2025 ip fray article). Element countersued four months later, filing an antitrust complaint against Illumina in the Northern District of California and patent infringement suits in Delaware and before the Munich I Regional Court, asserting German patent DE112008000363 (“Device for detection and its use”) (September 22, 2025 press release). Element has separately been sued by 10x Genomics over unrelated next-generation sequencing patents (May 11, 2026 ip fray article), so it is now defending itself on multiple fronts at once.