Helicos BioSciences Corporation Settles Its Patent Litigation Against Pacific Biosciences, Inc.

Helicos BioSciences Corporation (OTCQB: HLCS.PK) announced today that it has settled its patent infringement litigation against Pacific Biosciences, Inc. The settlement gives Pacific Biosciences freedom-to-operate from Helicos’s patents within a limited field of use covering Pacific Biosciences’ current products only. In addition to paying an undisclosed financial settlement, Pacific Biosciences agreed to refrain from challenging the validity, enforceability, or patentability of any of Helicos’s patents, which includes halting its efforts in the inter partes reexamination of the patents in suit with the USPTO.

"After carefully evaluating sales trends in the next generation sequencing marketplace over the last several quarters, including the trend in Pacific Biosciences’s sales, and balancing potential future recovery versus litigation cost, we have concluded that the best course of action for Helicos is to settle with Pacific Biosciences” stated Dr. Ivan Trifunovich, President and CEO of Helicos. “The settlement and the associated non-exclusive and non-sublicensable license are narrowly focused on Pacific Biosciences’s own technology. Our aim is to focus on the market leader Illumina as well as on Life Technologies, and we plan on continuing to pursue vigorously the patent infringement cases against them.”

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements". All statements other than statements of historical fact that Helicos makes in this press release are forward-looking statements. In particular, the statements herein regarding our litigation plans, and statements preceded by, followed by or that include the words "intends", "estimates", "plans", "believes", " expects", "anticipates", "should", "could" or similar expressions, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements reflect our current expectations and are inherently uncertain. Our actual results may differ significantly from our expectations. We assume no obligation to update this forward-looking information. A discussion of the risk factors facing us can be found under “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011, and in our other reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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