Invalidity dossier
US 10612096
Methods for determining fraction of fetal nucleic acids in maternal samples
Current assignee: Illumina Inc
Added 9/23/2026, 8:42:13 PM
Active provider: DeepSeek · deepseek-flash
Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview: US10612096B2
Title: Methods for determining fraction of fetal nucleic acids in maternal samples
Patent number: US10612096B2 | Application: US15/299,335 | Publication: US20170037474A1
Assignee/Inventor info (as listed): Original assignee Verinata Health Inc; current assignee listed as Illumina Inc. Inventors: Richard P. Rava, Yue-Jen Chuu, Manjula Chinnappa, David A. Comstock, Gabrielle Heilek, Michael Hunkapiller.
Key dates: Priority date 2010-01-19; filing date 2016-10-20; publication date 2020-04-07; anticipated expiration 2030-12-01; legal status Active.
Purpose: The invention relates to methods and compositions for detecting fetal nucleic acids in a maternal sample and determining the fraction of cell-free fetal nucleic acid circulating in a maternal sample. It addresses a need by providing a means to determine fetal fraction independent of the fetus's gender, unlike prior approaches that compared a fetal-specific locus such as SRY on chromosome Y to an autosomal locus common to mother and fetus (e.g., via quantitative real-time PCR). The method can also be applied to determine simultaneously the presence or absence of a chromosomal [abnormality—text truncated].
Plain-language scope: The patent covers techniques for measuring what proportion of the cell-free nucleic acids in a pregnant woman's blood sample comes from the fetus, without relying on the fetus being male. The prior-art keywords listed (seq, nos, fetal, nucleic acids, polymorphic) suggest the approach involves polymorphic sequences and nucleic-acid analysis.
Classifications: Primarily C12Q (nucleic acid testing), including C12Q1/6876, C12Q1/6883, C12Q1/6869 (sequencing), and G16B30/00–30/10 (bioinformatics/sequence alignment).
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US10612096](/patent/US10612096)/en
What the excerpt does not establish: It provides only a partial text (explicitly noted as excerpted) and does not include the full claims, detailed description, examples, or specific experimental data. It also does not establish the accuracy of assignee listings or legal conclusions, and no litigation, validity, or prior-art analysis is provided here.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:41:14 PM
Cases on file (0)
Specific litigation cases in our database that name US patent 10612096. The free-form analysis below may also discuss cases beyond this list.
No cases on file mention this patent. Upload a CSV or add a case manually in Admin → Manage litigation cases.
Litigation summary
Past and pending lawsuits — plaintiffs, defendants, jurisdictions, outcomes, and notable rulings.
Proceedings on file (0)
All PTAB activity →AIA trial proceedings (IPR / PGR / CBM) filed at the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board against this patent. Sourced from the USPTO Open Data Portal and refreshed every six hours; each proceeding number deep-links to the PTAB E2E docket.
No PTAB proceedings on file. This patent has not been challenged via IPR, PGR, or CBM. The absence is itself a signal — well-asserted patents eventually attract IPRs. The LLM analysis below may surface filings the ODP feed hasn’t indexed yet.
PTAB challenges
AIA trial proceedings at the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board — IPR, PGR, and CBM. Petitioners, judge panels, claim-level invalidation outcomes from Final Written Decisions, and Federal Circuit appeals. The single most important defensive datapoint after litigation history.
Assignment history
Inventors, original assignee, and the chain of ownership recorded with the USPTO — including the correspondent attorney who recorded each assignment, since shell-LLC chains often share one repeat-player attorney even when the entity names look unrelated. Surfaces NPE / patent-troll patterns: shell-entity transfers, known asserters in the chain, repeat correspondent fingerprints, pre-litigation assignments, and bankruptcy fire-sales.
Prior art
Earlier patents, publications, and products that may anticipate or render the claims unpatentable.
Obviousness
Combinations of prior art that suggest the claimed invention would have been obvious under 35 U.S.C. § 103.
Extensions
Patent term adjustments, term extensions, continuations, divisionals, family members, and expiration dates.
Derivative works
Defensive disclosure: derivative variations of each claim designed to render future incremental improvements obvious or non-novel.