EPO to grant UC, Berkeley CRISPR patent

The European Patent Office (EPO) has revealed its intention to grant a patent covering the CRISPR gene-editing technology to the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Vienna, and inventor Emmanuelle Charpentier.

This is the latest development in a multi-jurisdictional battle over the CRISPR/Cas9 technology.

In February, LSIPR reported that the US Patent Trial and Appeal Board had found that the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT’s patents concerning CRISPR technology do not interfere with claims filed by UC, Berkeley and the University of Vienna.

The Broad Institute had provided sufficient evidence to show that its claims, which are all limited to CRISPR/Cas9 systems in a eukaryotic environment, do not interfere with UC Berkeley’s claims, according to the board.

UC Berkeley’s claims were not restricted to any environment.

On Thursday, March 23, the EPO announced its intention to grant a patent, EP2800811, which concerns “Methods and compositions for RNA-directed target DNA modification and for RNA-directed modulation of transcription”.

It discloses a DNA-targeting RNA (ribonucleic acid) comprised of a targeting sequence. Together with a “modifying polypeptide”, it provides for site-specific modification of a target DNA and/or a polypeptide associated with the target DNA.

Edward Penhoet, who was recently appointed a special adviser on CRISPR to the UC, Berkeley president and chancellor, said: “The university is thrilled with this important EPO decision, which recognises the pioneering work of Jennifer Doudna, Charpentier and their teams as the CRISPR/Cas9 inventors, and also recognises that the original patent application covers a broad range of cell types, including human cells.”