"Significant and Exciting"

This is a significant and exciting decision by the EPO, and we view this announcement as recognition of MilliporeSigma's important contributions to the genome-editing field, MilliporeSigma CEO Udit Batra, Ph.D., said. This patent provides protection for our CRISPR technology, which will give scientists the ability to advance treatment options for the toughest medical challenges we face today.

MilliporeSigma also predicted that it would be awarded patents for the technology in other countries as well.

The European patent to MilliporeSigma comes five months after the EPO announced an intention to grant a patent broadly covering CRISPR technology to Emmanuelle Charpentier, Ph.D., a director at the Max-Planck Institute in Berlin, together with the University of California (UC), and University of Vienna.

The patent consisted of broad claims directed to the CRISPR/Cas9 single-guide gene-editing system for uses in both noncellular and cellular settings, including in cells from vertebrate animals such as human or mammalian cellsas well as composition claims for use in any setting, including claims for use in a method of therapeutic treatment of a patient. The technology has been licensed to companies that include CRISPR Therapeuticswhose co-founders include Dr. Charpentierand ERS Genomics, both of which announced the EPO decision.

Dr. Charpentier, UC, and University of Vienna are in a legal battle royal with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard over who invented the gene-editing platform. Late last month, the European patent holders filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit seeking to reverse the February 15 decision by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). The PTAB found no interference in fact between 12 patents related to CRISPR technology that list as inventor Feng Zhang, Ph.D., of the Broad, and a patent application by Dr. Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D., of UC Berkeley.

The #CRISPR #patent situation in Europe just got a LOT more complicated, tweeted Jacob S. Sherkow, J.D., associate professor at the Innovation Center for Law and Technology, New York Law School, who has closely followed the CRISPR legal wrangle, on August 5.

Until now, he tweeted, the EPO granting of a patent to Dr. Charpentier, UC, and the University of Vienna didn't mean Zhang couldn't get his. Now, it's unclear.

Link:
MilliporeSigma to Be Granted European Patent for CRISPR Technology - Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

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