Firm wielding Theranos patents asks judge to block coronavirus test [Updated], Hacker News

And not just any medical testing equipment: BioFire recently (announced it had developed three tests for COVID – 48 Using its hardware — tests that are due out later this month. But Labrador is asking a Delaware federal court to block the company from using its technology — presumably including the new coronavirus tests.

As Stanford patent scholar Mark Lemley puts it , “this could be the most tone-deaf IP suit in history.”

[Update: Facing an avalanche of bad publicity, Labrador announced on Tuesday that it would grant royalty-free licenses to companies developing COVID-19 tests. The company also claims it didn’t know that BioFire was working on a coronavirus test when it filed its lawsuit last week. The company seems to be going forward with the lawsuit.] Weaponizing Theranos patents

One of the peculiarities of the patent system is that you don’t have to actually prove your technology works to get a patent on it. That explains why Theranos — which was famously unable to get its technology working — managed to get a number of patents anyway. These included Patent # 8, 728, : “Point-of-care fluidic systems and uses thereof.”

This patent describes a generic architecture for a machine that automates testing for the presence of substances in bodily fluids. In the system described by the patent, an operator inserts a “test device” (which contains both the bodily fluid to be tested and the reactants required to perform the test) into a “reader device.” The reader device then triggers the necessary chemical reactions to perform the test and reports the results. Theranos’ patent isn’t limited to any specific bodily fluid, reactants, or testing protocol.

While Theranos never got a machine like this working, BioFire did. BioFire’s product line includes the

BioFire Filmarray