Charpentier CRISPR patent gets good news from Japan
Novelty and inventive step of patent owned by ERS Genomics and Emmanuelle Charpentier withstand challenge at Japan Patent Office | Invalidity proceedings also rejected by JPO in 2021.
The Japan Patent Office (JPO) has upheld a patent covering CRISPR/Cas9 technology belonging to Dublin-based biotech ERS Genomics, it was announced yesterday (December 13).
The novelty and inventive step of Japanese patent number JP6692856 were contested through an invalidation challenge, which was rejected by the JPO.
Patent '856 covers compositions and methods for use in a variety of eukaryotic cells, in either dual-guide or single-guide format.
ERS Genomics provides licensing to CRISPR/Cas9 technology via its own licence from researcher Emmanuelle Charpentier, who filed the '856 patent along with the University of California and University of Vienna.
The patent was previously upheld by the JPO following a challenge in 2021.
Commenting on the decision, Michael Arciero, vice-president of IP and commercial development at ERS Genomics, said: “The decision by the JPO reinforces our foundational patents to CRISPR/Cas9 and highlights the value of ensuring the correct intellectual property is in place when working with this fundamental technology.
“This re-affirmation of the validity of our fundamental CRISPR patents supports our active licensing efforts in Japan and ensures greater value to new and existing licensees there.”
Last year, the University of California, University of Vienna and Charpentier suffered a defeat in the CRISPR inventorship battle as the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) ruled that patents covering the gene-editing technology belonged to the Broad Institute, owned by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
The tribunal said there was “no dispute” the California and Vienna schools first conceived of a CRISPR system, but they failed to demonstrate that they created a system that works with eukaryotic cells before Broad’s patented invention, it was reported.
$100m Cas9 licensing deal
As part of the long-running dispute over patent ownership for the technology, Massachusetts-based Editas Medicine, which develops therapies for rare diseases based on CRISPR gene editing techniques, has entered into a licence agreement for Cas9 technology with Vertex Pharmaceuticals, it was also announced yesterday.
Editas is the licensee of various CRISPR patents for developing medicines, including a Cas9 patent portfolio owned and co-owned by Harvard, Broad Institute, MIT and The Rockefeller University.
The technology licensed by Vertex will be used for developing medicines for sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia. Vertex will reportedly pay Editas $50 million upfront for the licence, with another possible $50 million contingency payment.
