TwinStrand Biosciences Announces Final Judgment in Patent Infringement Suit Against Guardant Health, Awarding TwinStrand and the University of Washington More Than $245.2 Million in Damages, Accrued Royalties and Interest
TwinStrand Biosciences Announces Final Judgment in Patent Infringement Suit Against Guardant Health, Awarding TwinStrand and the University of Washington More Than $245.2 Million in Damages, Accrued Royalties and Interest
Willful infringement is when a person or company knowingly copies, uses, or sells another party’s protected invention, trademark, or creative work without permission. For investors it matters because courts can punish deliberate violations more harshly—awarding larger damages, imposing fines, or ordering product removals—so allegations or findings of willful infringement can lead to big legal costs, disrupted sales, and reputational damage that affect a company’s value.
royalty-bearingfinancial
An asset, contract, or revenue stream described as royalty-bearing requires regular payments calculated as a percentage or fixed fee based on sales, production, or use. For investors, this matters because such payments either reduce the cash an owner keeps from a product or create a predictable income stream for the party receiving the royalty—think of it like renting out a patent or mine where the operator pays the owner a portion of what they earn.
pre-judgment and post-judgment interestfinancial
Interest that a court orders on a money award to compensate for the time value of money: pre-judgment interest is the interest calculated from when the loss or claim arose up to the court’s judgment, and post-judgment interest is the interest that runs from the judgment date until the judgment is paid. Like interest on an unpaid bill, these amounts increase the total liability over time and affect the cash a defendant must eventually pay and the recovery a claimant actually receives.
patent trial and appeal boardregulatory
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board is an administrative body that reviews and decides challenges to the validity of issued patents and hears appeals of patent office decisions. For investors, its rulings can make or break a company’s exclusive rights to a product or technology—similar to a referee overturning a game-winning call—affecting future revenue, legal costs, and the value of related securities.
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Court preserves 2023 willful infringement verdict and orders a 6% royalty on sales of 11 Guardant Health products and services found to infringe two patents underlying TwinStrand Duplex Sequencing® technology
Court enters judgment in favor of TwinStrand and the University of Washington on validity of the asserted claims of both patents
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
TwinStrand Biosciences (TwinStrand), the pioneer in Duplex Sequencing® technology, today announced that the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware entered final judgment on Aug. 21, 2026, in favor of TwinStrand and the University of Washington (UW) in their patent infringement suit against Guardant Health, Inc. (Nasdaq: GH). The final judgment preserves a November 2023 jury verdict finding that Guardant Health willfully infringed two core patents underlying TwinStrand's Duplex Sequencing technology across 11 royalty-bearing products and services, and awards TwinStrand and UW more than $245.2 million in damages, accrued royalties and interest for infringement that occurred through May 31, 2026.
The judgment upholds the jury’s $83.4 million damages award for infringement through June 30, 2023, and follows the court’s June 16, 2026, ruling resolving the parties’ post-trial motions. The court awarded an additional $19.5 million in supplemental damages for sales between July 1, 2023, and Feb. 5, 2024, and $119.4 million in accrued royalties at a rate of 6% for sales between Feb. 5, 2024, and May 31, 2026. The court also awarded $22.9 million in pre-judgment and post-judgment interest. In determining past damages, the jury applied a 6% royalty to revenue attributed to the covered products and services, which represented approximately 90% of Guardant Health's total revenue during the relevant infringement period.
Going forward, the court ordered Guardant Health to pay this 6% royalty on sales of the covered products and services adjudicated at trial from June 1, 2026, through expiration of the patents on March 15, 2033, payable quarterly. Interest also continues to accrue on the unpaid judgment.
"Duplex Sequencing solved an accuracy problem the sequencing field had worked on for years, and this judgment affirms the jury’s finding that Guardant Health built products on that invention without a license,” said Chad Waite, chair of the TwinStrand board of directors. “We remained steadfast in our conviction that the facts would prevail, and they have. We intend to see this through and stand firmly behind the intellectual property at the core of our technology.”
The court previously denied Guardant Health’s post-trial efforts to overturn the verdict or obtain a new trial. All of Guardant Health’s counterclaims against TwinStrand were either dismissed by the court or withdrawn by Guardant Health before trial.
The final judgment also upholds the validity of the asserted claims of both TwinStrand patents at issue in the case, U.S. Patent Nos. 10,287,631 and 10,760,127. In doing so, the court adopted TwinStrand’s proposed language on validity over Guardant Health’s proposal that no judgment on validity be entered. Patent-related proceedings regarding the patents remain ongoing before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, respectively, and neither patent has been invalidated.
“We have been confident in these patents since the day they issued,” Waite added. “The court’s decision to enter judgment in our favor on validity is particularly meaningful and reinforces the strength of our intellectual property at the core of Duplex Sequencing. We will continue to defend these patents and the innovation they protect for the researchers and clinicians worldwide who rely on the accuracy our technology makes possible.”
The 11 royalty-bearing Guardant Health products and services covered by the judgment are:
Guardant360 Lab Developed Test
Guardant360 CDx
GuardantOMNI
Guardant Reveal / LUNAR-1
Guardant360 Response
Guardant360 TissueNext
Guardant HEME
GuardantINFINITY / Sirius
Guardant LUNAR-2 / Shield
Guardant COMPANION
Guardant EXPLORE
Under the judgment, Guardant Health must also provide TwinStrand and UW with a quarterly accounting of all U.S. sales of these products and services.
About TwinStrand Biosciences
TwinStrand Biosciences is a precision genomics company advancing highly accurate DNA sequencing through its patented TwinStrand Duplex Sequencing® technology, originally developed at the University of Washington. Duplex Sequencing achieves more than 10,000-fold greater accuracy than conventional next-generation sequencing by independently sequencing and comparing both complementary strands of each DNA molecule. This enables reliable detection of ultra-low-frequency genetic variants that conventional methods often cannot distinguish from background sequencing errors. The technology supports applications across oncology, molecular diagnostics, genetic toxicology and drug development. TwinStrand collaborates with leading pharmaceutical companies, molecular diagnostics developers, academic institutions and research organizations, and its intellectual property portfolio includes more than 150 issued patents and patent applications worldwide. For more information, visit www.twinstrandbio.com.
