Mind & body, Research

Court denies UC appeal, allowing issue of key CRISPR patents

UC's appeal of CRISPR-Cas9 patent decision denied, allowing issuance of patents to both UC and the Broad Institute

By Public Affairs

CRISPR-Cas9 molecule
Schematic representation of the CRISPR-Cas9 system. The Cas9 enzyme (orange) cuts the DNA (blue) in the location selected by the RNA (red). Image courtesy of Carlos Clarivan/Science Photo Library/NTB Scanpix

September 10, 2018

The following statement about today’s U.S. Court of Appeals decision on UC’s patent interference claim before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board may be attributed to Charles F. Robinson, Office of General Counsel, University of California Office of the President:

“The Court of Appeals today concluded that the use of CRISPR-Cas9 in plant and animal cells is separately patentable from Drs. Doudna and Charpentier’s invention of the use of CRISPR-Cas9 in any environment. We are evaluating further litigation options. We also look forward to proving that Drs. Doudna and Charpentier first invented usage in plant and animal cells — a fact that is already widely recognized by the global scientific community — as the Doudna-Charpentier team’s several pending patent applications that cover use of CRISPR-Cas9 in plant and animal cells are now under examination by the patent office.

“Separately, we are gratified that our dominant applications for the groundbreaking invention of the use of CRISPR-Cas9 in all environments, including plant and animal cells, will continue to issue as patents, adding to the patents recently granted in the United States and other countries around the world for this work.”

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