Moderna filed suit in the US and Germany Friday against Pfizer and BioNtech for three claims of patent infringement. Moderna claims that Pfizer and BioNtech used the company’s patented mRNA technology in COVID-19 vaccines without Moderna’s permission.

Moderna alleges that before the pandemic, they had over a decade of research on mRNA in coronaviruses, with six different “mRNA candidates for infectious disease in clinical trials.” The company obtained various patents for its technology from 2011 to 2016. Then, when the pandemic struck, “Moderna answered the call” and quickly developed a COVID-19 vaccine based on its exiting technology.

Moderna claims that prior to the pandemic, Pfizer and BioNtech had no existing mRNA vaccine technology. Yet, when Pfizer and BioNtech presented vaccine candidates for testing, “they decided to make the exact same chemical modification to their mRNA that Moderna scientists first developed years earlier.” In scientific terms, Pfizer and BioNtech’s vaccine “uses the exact same 1-methylpseudouridine chemical modification in a lipid nanoparticle formulation as Moderna’s patented COVID-19 vaccine.”

Moderna only seeks damages for Pfizer’s sales that occurred after March 8, 2022. During the pandemic, Moderna voluntarily pledged not to enforce their “patents against those making vaccines intended to combat the pandemic.” The company “refrained from asserting its patents earlier so as not to distract from efforts to bring the pandemic to an end as quickly as possible.” However, now that the vaccines are easily accessible to most people, Moderna seeks compensation for the continued sales of Pfizer and BioNtech’s vaccine and booster shots.

Moderna claims their goal is “to protect the mRNA technology platform [they] innovated, invested in, and patented and to ensure that intellectual property is respected.”