Disentangling the patent battle over who ‘invented’ CRISPR

2012 saw two sets of inventors filed patent applications covering various uses of CRISPR: Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier of U.C. Berkeley and the University of Vienna, respectively, in May 2012; and Feng Zhang of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in December 2012. Even though it appeared that Doudna and Charpentier were both the first to invent an engineerable form of CRISPR and the first to file a patent application…Zhang’s patent application was reviewed by the PTO faster—and …was granted before Doudna and Charpentier’s application was issued. This odd sequence of events set up a special, and rare, procedure … a trial to determine who the first true inventor of the claimed technology was.

…Surprising to many scientists, a patent is not a right to use one’s own invention…but rather, the right to exclude others from using an invention without the patent holder’s permission.

But defining the word “inventor” can be difficult….Prior to 2013, the United States was unique in awarding patents to the first true inventor, irrespective or whether he or she filed a patent application.

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A decision is likely due in the early part of 2017…. 

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: What the CRISPR Patent Dispute is All About