‘Here we are again’: The CRISPR patent battle is reopened

New documents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office show that the patent battles between UC Berkeley and the Broad Institute over the gene editing technology known as CRISPR are revving back up. The office declared an interference between a dozen of the Broad's key patents on CRISPR and 10 of UC's patent applications, meaning that the latter describe inventions identical to those covered by the former. In this case, the Broad's patents cover the use of CRISPR in eukaryotes — organisms like us, whose genomes are enclosed within a nucleus. But pending applications filed by UC Berkeley also claim use in eukaryotes. The patent office now has to decide whether the Broad’s patents are still valid, a process that could take up to a year, and would have huge implications for companies looking to leverage CRISPR for clinical use.