Just when you thought the CRISPR patent fight had quieted down

The U.S. patent office just reopened the years-long squabble between the Broad Institute and the University of California over just who discovered CRISPR genome editing.

As STAT’s Sharon Begley explains, regulators declared an "interference" between CRISPR patents awarded to the Broad, which means they consider the ideas to be similar enough to UC’s patents to warrant a closer look.

The dispute, which began in 2014, seemed to be in its waning days after a federal appeals court ruled in favor of the Broad last year. The patent office’s decision to wade back into the issue throws any conclusions into doubt.

“Here we are again,” said attorney Kevin Noonan of the Chicago law firm McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP. “I can only imagine that this will go on, and on, and on.”

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