Oxford Nanopore Technologies PLC (LSE:ONT) intends to sue China's BGI Group and subsidiaries in other countries for breach of contract and other charges related to a potential breach of patent licenses.
The London-listed company said it "seeks discovery" and has submitted a filing in the US District Court for the Northern District of California to serve subpoenas on Complete Genomics Inc, Innomics Inc (formerly known as BGI Americas Corp), MGI Americas Inc and others in support of a lawsuit that it intends to file in England.
Claims are intended to be brought for breach of contractual obligations, claims for breach of common law obligations of confidence, breach of duties under trade secrets regulations, it said, as well as an entitlement claim to a license of certain patents.
The claims are to be made against BGI Tech Solutions, BGI Group, Beijing Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, MGI Holdings Co Ltd and MGI Tech Co.
Oxford Nanopore said it "does not believe BGI's nanopore-based sequencing technology is able to be used in commercial products around the world" without infringing or misappropriating its portfolio of proprietary rights.
BGI Group, formerly known as Beijing Genomics Institute, is a Chinese genomics company based in Shenzhen. BGI Tech Solutions is headquartered in Hong Kong.
Seeking discovery in a legal context, means the company is requesting the process through which parties in a lawsuit obtain evidence from each other or from third parties before trial.
Discovery allows each side to access information relevant to the case, which could include documents, electronic records, witness statements, and other materials.
Analysts at broker Peel Hunt said the announcement was "slightly opaque and qualitative".