Broad, Berkeley Return to Argue CRISPR Invention at Patent Office

Xconomy reports, “A special board of the US Patent and Trademark Office has reignited the long-running patent fight over who invented the groundbreaking CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system. Nearly a year ago, the matter seemed put to rest after a federal court upheld a ruling of the same patent office board. That ruling upheld a key 2014 patent issued to the Broad Institute in Cambridge, MA, because it did not compete—or in PTO-speak, “interfere”—with work by rival scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, and two European universities that was published in their seminal 2012 paper.”

Referencing client The University of California, Berkeley, Director Eldora L. Ellison, Ph.D. is quoted in the coverage saying, “We are confident that the USPTO will ultimately recognize that the Doudna and Charpentier team hold the priority of invention specific to eukaryotic cells, as well as other settings covered by previous patents.”