The United States Patent and Trademark Office Orders the Re-Examination of Two Patents Included in the Patent Litigation between Illumina and Affymetrix

Business Wire, Dec 21, 2007

SAN DIEGO -- Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark office has ordered the re-examination of U.S. Patent Nos. 6,355,432 and 6,646,243. The serial numbers for the re-examinations are 90/008,885 and 90/008,889, respectively. They were assigned the same filing date of November 27, 2007. The 6,355,432 and 6,646,243 patents are two of the patents currently the subject of the infringement suit Affymetrix, Inc. filed against Illumina on July 26, 2004 in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware under Civil Action No. 04-901-JJF.

Any person may at any time request that the U.S. Patent Office re-examine a patent on the basis of prior art. The request for re-examination must explain the relevance of the prior art being brought to the attention of the Patent Office, and the manner of applying the cited prior art to every claim for which reexamination is requested. In its request for re-examination of the '432 and 243 patents Illumina has asked the Patent Office to re-examine all of the patent claims. Once, as in this case, the Patent Office has found that the cited prior art raises a substantial new question of patentability, the re-examination process typically takes about one year.

Detailed information about these re-examinations can be found on the U.S. Patent Office website which can be accessed at http://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal/pair. The U.S. Patent Office has yet to rule on the other requests for re-examination filed by Illumina regarding the three other patents that are the subject of the 2004 suit.

"We are pleased to hear that the U.S. Patent Office has decided to re-examine the validity of these two patents. We expect the Patent Office to consider closely the applicability of the prior art in their evaluation of whether these patents should be amended or invalidated in their entirety," said Jay Flatley, President and Chief Executive Officer of Illumina.

About Illumina

Illumina is a leading developer, manufacturer and marketer of next-generation life science tools and integrated systems for the large scale analysis of genetic variation and biological function. Using our proprietary technologies, we provide a comprehensive line of products and services that currently serve the sequencing, genotyping, and gene expression markets, and we expect to enter the market for molecular diagnostics. Our customers include leading genomic research centers, pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, clinical research organizations and biotechnology companies. Our tools provide researchers around the world with the performance, throughput, cost effectiveness and flexibility necessary to perform the billions of genetic tests needed to extract valuable medical information from advances in genomics and proteomics. We believe this information will enable researchers to correlate genetic variation and biological function, which will enhance drug discovery and clinical research, allow diseases to be detected earlier and permit better choices of drugs for individual patients.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: this release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in any forward-looking statements are the costs and outcome of Illumina's litigation with Affymetrix and our ability (i) to integrate effectively our recent acquisition of Solexa, Inc., (ii) to develop and commercialize further our BeadArray(TM), VeraCode(TM) and Solexa[R] technologies and to deploy new gene expression and genotyping products and applications for our technology platforms, (iii) to manufacture robust micro arrays and Oligator[R] oligonucleotides, (iv) to integrate and scale our VeraCode technology, (v) to scale further oligo synthesis output and technology to satisfy market demand derived from our collaboration with Invitrogen, together with other factors detailed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including our recent filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q or in information disclosed in public conference calls, the date and time of which are released beforehand. We disclaim any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements beyond the date of this release.