UC, Berkeley appeals to Federal Circuit in CRISPR patent clash
The University of California (UC), Berkeley and the University of Vienna have appealed against the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's (PTAB) decision in the dispute over CRISPR technology.
It came after the PTAB ruled in February that the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT’s patents concerning CRISPR technology do not interfere with patent claims filed by the universities.
The Broad Institute, in a statement released on Thursday, April 13, said that given the facts of the case have not changed, it expects that the outcome will once again be the same.
It added: "Importantly, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit does not independently weigh the facts determined by the PTAB. To overturn the PTAB decision, the court would need to decide that the PTAB committed an error of law or lacked substantial evidence to reach its decision."
The Broad Institute concluded that, given the “careful and extensive factual findings” in the PTAB’s decision, a different decision seems unlikely.
CRISPR/Cas9 is a gene-editing technique that can target and modify DNA with high accuracy.
The parties had appeared in front of judges at the PTAB in December last year for an interference proceeding requested by UC, Berkeley.
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