Battleground narrowed in CRISPR patent case between UC and Broad 

If you think the CRISPR patent battles between University of California and the Broad Institute haven’t, in tennis terms, rallied enough, then here’s more. The U.S. patent office just told the two entities what they were allowed to fight about and the advantage seems to lie with the Broad. The institute can argue that the patent back and forth be thrown out — despite, confusingly, it being the patent office that opened the fight back up in June. In turn, UC and its ally the University of Vienna can argue that the patent filing date be no later than 2013, putting the burden of proof back on the Broad to show that it filed to patent the gene editing technology first. The balls are now back in the court of each institution: UC has until Sept. 5 to file a motion, while the Broad has until the 20th.