Two Nobel Prize Winners Want To Cancel Their Own CRISPR Patents in Europe (technologyreview.com)
- Reference: 0175139229
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/09/26/190227/two-nobel-prize-winners-want-to-cancel-their-own-crispr-patents-in-europe
- Source link: https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/09/25/1104475/nobel-prize-winners-cancel-crispr-patents-europe/
> In the decade-long fight to control CRISPR, the super-tool for modifying DNA, it's been common for lawyers to try to overturn patents held by competitors by pointing out errors or inconsistencies. But now, in a surprise twist, the team that earned the Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing CRISPR is [1]asking to cancel two of their own seminal patents , MIT Technology Review has learned.
>
> The decision could affect who gets to collect the lucrative licensing fees on using the technology. The request to withdraw the pair of European patents, by lawyers for Nobelists Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, comes after a damaging August opinion from a European technical appeals board, which ruled that the duo's earliest patent filing didn't explain CRISPR well enough for other scientists to use it and doesn't count as a proper invention. The Nobel laureates' lawyers say the decision is so wrong and unfair that they have no choice but to preemptively cancel their patents, a scorched-earth tactic whose aim is to prevent the unfavorable legal finding from being recorded as the reason.
[1] https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/09/25/1104475/nobel-prize-winners-cancel-crispr-patents-europe/
Hmm... (Score:3)
> no choice but to preemptively cancel their [CRISPR] patents
Too bad there isn't some sort of tool they could use to edit their patents in-place ... :-)
Re: (Score:2)
Well, yeah... instead of simply 'overturning' it I'm surprised they aren't allowed to amend it to provide the necessary detail (without restarting the clock on expiration).
Re: (Score:3)
Because the patents were already issued.
The patents are in dispute between Berkely (Doudna) and Charpentier herself (Europe allows her to keep it, whereas US you assign to your university) and her research institute on one side, and the Broad institute and Feng Zhang, which is a joint Harvard/MIT institute. Both groups filed thier patents around the world, and both were issued, but they are different in subtle ways. They are in conflict, so they each filed claims against each others' patents and the d
CRISPR Promises and CRISPR Reality (Score:1)
Lots of promises and only a couple of wins. It seems they can cure Sickle Cell Anemia with it, but the cure is $2.2M dollars. Some folks also claim to be working on cures for Leber Congenital Amaurosis and Hereditary Transthyretin Amyloidosis using CRISPR. This technology came out in 2015 IIRC and this is it? After all that nearly AI-level-hype and promises we've got one $2.2M cure and possibly two in the pipe? I get lectured every time that "medicine is hard". Yeah, so are a lot of other things that get d
Re: (Score:2)
MEDICAL RESEARCHER: [Closes mouth as exultant expression turns into frown, slowly puts syringe with The Omnicure in it back in pocket of lab coat, walks away forever.]
Re: (Score:2)
Good. If he's that triggered by some rando on the internet, he didn't need to be injecting anyone with anything. The ultimate cure or not.
Re: (Score:2)
As someone who works in this area, let's just say that the promise of simple tools was oversold. Getting CRISPR tools to work is a little more complicated than first thought
Re: (Score:2)
I responded to this same post in a much more positive way. But you are entirely correct; it's not exactly "scissors" as advertised, or "programmable" as advertised. The cost and hardship to learn how to master CRISPR is beyond what many people are willing to put into the effort.
Re: (Score:3)
So I can understand your feeling there if you use a very limited amount of information about the field. Also, the road between a published paper and a patent, and actual industrial application and product, is way larger than most people assume.
There are in fact now over [1]75 clinical trials running in various places [crisprmedicinenews.com], although most in the US. They are targeting genetic diseases mostly, but also cancers, viral diseases, antibacterial diseases etc.
What is not in the invention is how to control the chem
[1] https://crisprmedicinenews.com/clinical-trials/
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks for your positive, fact-filled post. I read it and happily followed your links and I'm reading them. There does seem to be more than three items to report on and I'm glad for that. I had high hopes for the "biohackers" who were spreading the bacterium that was key to the "scissors" and back in 2016 it sounded like we were on the cusp of godhood, but hey, I'll take steady-progress and hope, too.
Re: (Score:2)
What exactly have you been working on since 2015 that cured anything? Is it fun to just sit around looking at what other people are trying to invent and shit on it when everything doesn't go perfectly?
Re: (Score:2)
Since 2015? I've closed about 1000 software bugs (in realtime systems mostly, where people can get hurt when things go wrong) helped dozens of different organizations fix problems with their systems, including ones in the medical space (children's hospitals and research organizations mostly). I participate or operate about five open source projects and I've coached a few dozen kids in various skating modalities since 2018.
I'm pretty cool with what I've been up to and after the bullshit way medical "author
Re: (Score:2)
Your lack of self-awareness is cute, especially considering how old your ID is. We'll assume senility is the reason you don't appear to know how /. works despite behaving in the same manner you accuse the OP of.
"...but on a PCR machine." (Score:2)
People want to give away their own property? Should be easy, right? BET IT'S NOT!
Re: (Score:3)
It's not their own property (in full), so it's difficult. She needs the majority owners to agree. The patents are the property of "The regents of the university of California; University of Vienna; Charpentier, Emmanuelle". The last person is one of the two Nobel laureates, so she personally owns a share of the economical rights; but she presumably not majority owner.
For those with spare time:
* the patent [1]https://worldwide.espacenet.co... [espacenet.com] (EP3401400, it's easy to find the other EP2800811)
* list of letters a
[1] https://worldwide.espacenet.com/patent/search?q=pn%3DEP3401400A1