U.S. CRISPR rights battle heats up as UC team launches appeal
The battle over intellectual property rights to CRISPR-Cas9 continues between the University of California (UC) and the Broad Institute. In February, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruled that the inventions claimed by the two parties are distinct, marking a win for the Broad Institute. Now, UC has launched an appeal.
The dispute comes down to whether the Broad Institute’s patents focused on using CRISPR-Cas9 in eukaryote cells infringe on UC’s earlier patent focused on using the tech to edit DNA in test tubes. UC argues that use in eukaryotes was an obvious extrapolation of its work and maintains that six laboratories applied UC ‘s invention in eukaryotic cells—some prior to the Broad Institute’s patent.
