UC Berkeley loses CRISPR patent case

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard was the first to apply the tool to human cells, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office. The University of California, Berkeley had been trying to obtain lucrative patent rights to the technology. The University of California, Berkeley is home to the winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize for discovering the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technique.

It complicates the work of some companies that are trying to develop therapies based on the technology.

Broad Institute said in a statement that this decision confirmed that Broad's patents were properly issued.

The UC Berkeley group, collectively referred to as CVC, said in a statement that it intends to challenge the decision. The group has many other patents.

The decision is likely to end a long-running fight over ownership of the gene-editing technique. It allows scientists to cut and rearrange bits of DNA, changing the way it codes for different functions. The first paper on the CRISPR system was published in 2012 and showed how it worked in a test tube. Researchers at the Broad Institute published a paper on the use of CRISPR in the types of cells found in animals and people.

The US Patent and Trademark Office initially awarded the Broad Institute a patent for CRISPR. The Broad Institute retained its patents for the use of CRISPR in complex human and animal cells, despite the fact that they were different from those of UC Berkeley. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, DC, denied the appeal from UC Berkeley.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruled Monday in favor of UC Berkeley, who had challenged the Broad Institute's patents. The Broad Institute was supported once again by the PTO.

The Broad Institute will likely have to negotiate with the companies that originally licensed technology from CVC. The decision by the Broad Institute reinforces the strength of our intellectual property as we continue our work to develop life-changing medicines for people living with serious diseases.