June 12 (Reuters) - Guardant Health ( GH ) has sued

Tempus AI, an artificial-intelligence-based genetic testing

company backed by Japanese investment firm SoftBank,

for allegedly infringing five patents related to DNA-based

cancer testing, according to a lawsuit made public on Wednesday

in Delaware federal court.

Precision oncology company Guardant said in the lawsuit that

Tempus' "liquid biopsy" cancer tests violate Guardant's patent

rights in similar technology.

The lawsuit adds to a web of DNA-sequencing patent lawsuits

among genomics companies that have led to several multi-million

dollar verdicts.

Spokespeople for Tempus did not immediately respond to a

request for comment on the complaint. A spokesperson for

Guardant declined to comment.

Guardant's tests use DNA fragments circulating in a

patient's bloodstream to detect cancer cells in the body. Its

lawsuit said that Tempus' xF, xF+ and xM Monitor liquid-biopsy

panels utilize the same technology as Guardant's tests and

infringe its patents.

Chicago-based Tempus said last week that it was targeting a

valuation of up to $6.1 billion for its planned U.S. initial

public offering.

Guardant said in its lawsuit that Tempus' success comes from

its "unauthorized use of Guardant's pioneering inventions."

According to the complaint, Tempus said in a regulatory filing

that it was monitoring patent cases filed by competitors,

including Guardant, and knows that it "may need to either modify

existing or future sequencing methods" based on them.

Guardant asked the court for an unspecified amount of

monetary damages and a court order blocking Tempus from

infringing the patents.

The case is Guardant Health Inc ( GH ) v. Tempus AI Inc, U.S.

District Court for the District of Delaware, No. 1:24-cv-00687.

For Guardant: Jordan Jaffe, Wendy Devine, Michael Rosato and

Eric Tuttle of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

For Tempus: attorney information not yet available

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