Peace broke out last week between gene sequencing rivals Illumina Inc. and Qiagen N.V. But before lawyers could pack up their files, a new patent war was taking shape.

On Friday, Illumina, Columbia University and its licensee Qiagen settled their 5-year-old patent litigation. Qiagen agreed to stop using with its GeneReader machine a method for labeling nucleic acid molecules that was patented by Illumina.

Judge William Alsup, who'd enjoined Qiagen from selling the machine in the United States last fall, approved the parties' consent judgment. Qiagen in turn dismissed a lawsuit it had filed in Delaware and its Federal Circuit appeal. Financial terms of the settlement were not disclosed.