THE CRISPR Patent Battle

Four expert panelists discussed several issues raised by the recent patent interference ruling at the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board between two universities (the MIT- and Harvard-affiliated Broad Institute versus the University of California, Berkeley) concerning their respective patent claims to the gene editing technology CRISPR/Cas9. Our expert panelists explained the importance of the CRISPR technology, which was developed via federal research grants, and the patent litigation issues. In particular, they offered their perspectives on how the recent ruling may affect the short-term strategy of companies seeking to innovate using the CRISPR platform and the longer-term implications of the university patentees’ CRISPR licensing strategies for downstream innovation using the CRISPR platform.