Molecular Instruments, Inc. announced today that the Unified Patent Court (UPC) of the European Union has found that Molecular Instruments’ HCR™ RNA-ISH technology does not infringe two patents owned by Advanced Cell Diagnostics, Inc. (a Bio-Techne group company).
In a 2024 lawsuit filed in the UPC (proceedings no. UPC CFI 187/2024), Advanced Cell Diagnostics alleged that Molecular Instruments’ HCR™ RNA-ISH technology infringes European patents (EP) 2,500,439 and 1,910,572. The Court in its judgment of 18 November 2025 has rejected that claim and dismissed all of Advanced Cell Diagnostics' lawsuit, ruling that the patents are not infringed either literally or by equivalence (UPC Judgment).
This 2025 UPC judgment follows on the heels of an April 2024 UK judgment in which the High Court of England and Wales had already dismissed an earlier infringement lawsuit by revoking the UK parts of the same two Advanced Cell Diagnostics patents (proceedings no. HP-2022-000026), ruling that they were invalid on grounds of obviousness based on “overwhelming” primary evidence (UK Judgment).
“We chose to fight the UPC lawsuit as a matter of principle to preserve European scientists’ access to our game-changing HCR™ imaging platform, as many of their projects would otherwise become infeasible,” said Dr. Harry Choi, CEO of Molecular Instruments. “Our back-to-back victories in the UK and the UPC protect the continued innovation of biological researchers and drug developers that are striving to elucidate and treat countless diseases.”
Molecular Instruments were represented in the UPC by the combined team of Gowling WLG (UK) LLP, Boult Wade Tennant LLP, and De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek N.V.
About the HCR™ Imaging Platform
HCR™ RNA in situ hybridization (RNA-ISH) leverages dynamic nanotechnology to enable small amplification components to first penetrate a biological sample without interacting and then autonomously grow bright amplification polymers at the site of RNA targets within the sample. This unique combination of properties enables automated HCR™ Pro RNA-ISH workflows to be entirely protease-free, preserving sample morphology and protein target integrity for native compatibility with protein imaging. Likewise, manual HCR™ Gold RNA-ISH assays achieve unmatched performance, versatility, and robustness across diverse sample types including tissue sections, whole-mount embryos, and ultrathick samples up to 1 cm, representing the gold standard for multiplex, quantitative, high-resolution RNA imaging.
About Molecular Instruments
Molecular Instruments® (www.molecularinstruments.com) develops and synthesizes molecular kits powered by the breakthrough HCR™ imaging platform for applications in academic research, drug development, synthetic biology, and clinical pathology and diagnostics.
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