Clarifying a Court Decision in Germany

NanoString is eager to address questions that customers may have about the May 17, 2023 patent litigation decision of the Regional Court of Munich in Germany. The ruling has resulted in an injunction on the use of NanoString’s CosMx™ Spatial Molecular Imager for RNA detection in Germany while NanoString continues with an appeal of the ruling and a separate “nullity action”, discussed below.

We would like to make two things very clear at the outset to our valued customers and partners:

1. The scope of the Munich’s court’s decision is limited to Germany. NanoString can continue to market, sell and service all of our spatial platforms, CosMx SMI, GeoMx® DSP and AtoMx™ SIP everywhere else in the world. The ruling is not “portable” to other jurisdictions or countries.
2. The ruling only affects customer access to CosMx RNA assays and has no impact on use of CosMx protein assays in Germany.

NanoString is challenging the asserted patent’s validity through a parallel nullity action with the German Federal Patent Court in Munich. A decision in the nullity action is expected following a hearing scheduled for May 2024. If the relevant claims of the patent are invalidated by the Federal Patent Court in the nullity action, such a ruling would remove the basis for the Regional Court of Munich’s finding in the patent infringement case and allow NanoString to have the related injunction lifted. Importantly, we see a clear path to invalidating the patent on the basis of multiple prior art references in the nullity action.

It is clear that we can continue to sell our CosMx instruments everywhere in a world. Many of our customers have stated that the CosMx SMI system is enabling breakthrough scientific discoveries in their research. We are committed to continuing to provide access to CosMx SMI, the best-in-class spatial imager, to the global scientific community. NanoString has a proud history of innovation, and in CosMx we have delivered the most capable single cell imager on the market, which we are confident will continue to be made available to researchers around the world.

If you have more questions about this issue, please read our press release or reach out to a member of our team.

If you have any questions, please fill out the below form and we’ll get back to you soon. Alternatively, you can contact us at support@nanostring.com.