Broad Institute, University of California functional genomics news
The University of California Berkeley filed a patent interference request with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) related to 10 patents held by the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard covering CRISPR- Cas9 ( CRISPR-associated protein 9) gene editing technology. Broad said the PTO is reviewing the request and has not yet granted an interference.
Although Broad holds the first patents covering CRISPR-Cas9, UC Berkeley was first to file a patent application for the technique. UC Berkley’s application, filed in March 2013, has priority dating back to a provisional patent application filed in May 2012. Broad’s first provisional filing was in December 2012. Broad’s patent application was filed in October 2013 under an accelerated review protocol, allowing the application to jump the queue. UC Berkeley and Umea University also first demonstrated the technique in prokaryotic cells in Science in 2012. Broad later published the first evidence that it could work in mouse and human cells. ...