University of California Sues For Genia Technology Rights

By Bio-IT World Staff

December 30, 2016 | Yesterday the Regents of the University of California filed a patent suit against Roger Chen and Genia Technologies in California Northern District Court.

Registration is required to read the details, but Mick Watson summarized the claim. Chen is Chief Technological Officer at Genia; he received his MS in Biochemistry from UC Santa Cruz in 2007, according to his LinkedIn profile. The University of California claims that Chen, with others, produced key inventions during his time at the University of California that he later assigned to Genia, but which should have automatically been assigned to UC according to UC’s “oath of allegiance”, which Chen signed as a UC employee.

If the University of California wins, it could be ruinous for Genia, not to mention quite awkward for Roche. Roche recently ended an agreement with PacBio to focus its sequencing efforts on Genia.