CRISPR Patent

Finally there seems to be a resolution, but do not hold your breath. As Genome Web reports:

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit today issued a ruling upholding a judgement from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) which gave the Broad Institute and its partners control of key CRISPR genome editing patents and left the University of California and its co-litigants in the cold. In January 2017, the US Patent and Trademark Office declared an interference proceeding to settle certain claims related to the CRISPR patent battle between parties led by the Broad and UC. In the interference proceedings, the USPTO said it would collect, consider, and compare historical documentary evidence to establish invention dates. Because the applications were filed before the US moved to a "first to file" patent system in 2013, the patent rights would be granted under the old "first to invent" system.

Hopefully the issue is resolved. It was a sticky problem because the UCB folks said they did everything and any person skilled in the art would have done what Broad did. The court seems to have sidestepped that issue.