Who owns the Biological Scissors?
This week USPTO concluded that Harvard and MIT will have patent rights to CRISPR instead of UC Berkeley.
CRISPR let scientist edit the blueprint of human life ie DNA. It can cure a lot of diseases like HIV.
Why this ruling is interesting apart from the fact that it's a revolutionary technology that will change our lives in the next decade (think super babies)?
- Jennifer Doudna now has Nobel Prize for CRISPR but not the patent
- The patent still belongs to UC Berkeley in Europe instead of MIT and Harvard
- The companies who had licensing deals with these universities are impacted clearly in the market (Intellia down by 9%, Editas Medicine up by 17%)
- The key ruling by USPTO was made from a 2012 lab notebook