A four-year-old legal battle between Agilent Technologies and Twist Bioscience came to a conclusion Thursday. Twist agreed to pay Agilent $22.5 million to settle the lawsuit filed in 2016.
A four-year-old legal battle between Agilent Technologies and Twist Bioscience came to a conclusion Thursday. Twist agreed to pay Agilent $22.5 million to settle the lawsuit filed in 2016.
When Twist launched four years ago, Agilent filed a lawsuit against the company raising concern that Twist Chief Executive Officer Emily Leproust, a former Agilent employee, stole company technology and trade secrets as well as 10 Agilent employees to assist with starting up Twist. According to Agilent’s 2016 complaint, Leproust, who left the company in 2013, began pitching the idea of launching Twist to venture capitalists before she left the company. Additionally, the lawsuit challenged Twist’s patents on its technology to synthesize oligonucleotides, nucleic acid polymers used in research, genetic testing and forensics. The lawsuit said Leproust was working on similar technology while she was at Agilent.
In the settlement announced Thursday, the companies came to an agreement that provides Twist with a license for “discrete aspects of Agilent’s oligo-synthesis technology.” That license and the $22.5 million resolves all outstanding litigation between parties, including former Agilent employees Leproust, Siyuan Chen, and Solange Glaize, Agilent said in its announcement. Terms of the settlement contained no admission of liability or wrongdoing on behalf of Twist.
Simone Schiller, managing counsel for Global Litigation at Agilent, said the settlement vindicates the company’s “deep commitment” to protecting its intellectual property.
“Agilent is in the business of innovation and driving technology forward the right way is central to what we do. From the outset, our goal has been to protect our proprietary technology and the hard work of the many scientists and engineers who built it. This settlement accomplishes that,” Schiller said in a statement sent to BioSpace.
While Twist has agreed to pay the $22.5 million to Agilent, Leproust was confident that her company’s reputation has not been stained.
“Agilent launched an all-out legal assault on Twist and in the end, we not only survived, we thrived through the attack. We are pleased with the outcome and believe this settlement removes both the uncertainty and legal expense associated with any trial, and is in the best interest of all of our stakeholders,” Leproust said in a statement.
When the settlement was announced, shares of Twist jumped about 10% on the Nasdaq and are currently trading at $31.65, as of 10:57 a.m. Twist went public two years after launching with a $70 million initial public offering.
