Patent Office Hands Win in CRISPR Battle to Broad Institute
The patent fight over the gene-editing technique CRISPR has a winner—the Broad Institute of Cambridge, MA. The battle began when the University of California, Berkeley challenged a dozen patents held by the Broad Institute, which is affiliated with Harvard and MIT.
A U.S. Patent Office appeal board ruled there is “no interference in fact,” meaning their two discoveries don’t actually overlap. The Broad Institute, which had asked for the finding of no interference, will be able to retain its valuable patents covering the use of CRISPR in human and animal cells.
In a statement, Berkeley said it respected the decision but maintained that Berkeley’s Jennifer Doudna and collaborator Emmanuel Charpentier were the first to invent the CRISPR system.
