US: Broad files update to CRISPR-Cas9 portfolio

The Rockefeller University and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have settled their disagreement regarding inventorship and ownership of certain Broad filings relating to the use of the CRISPR-Cas9 system in eukaryotic cells. Rockefeller believed that its faculty member Dr. Luciano Marraffini, co-author with Broad’s Dr. Feng Zhang, on a seminal paper published in Science in 2013, Multiplex Genome Engineering Using CRISPR/Cas Systems, should have been maintained in these Broad eukaryote filings.

The parties agreed to submit their dispute to binding arbitration, in which it was decided that inventorship on Broad’s eukaryote filings in US Patent 8,697,359, and Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications PCT/US2013/074667, PCT/US2013/074691, PCT/US2013/074736, PCT/US2013/074743, PCT/US2013/074812, PCT/US2013/074819, PCT/US2013/074825, PCT/US2013/074790 or PCT/US2013/074800; or US application 15/349,603 will remain unchanged. The Broad Institute manages a robust CRISPR-Cas9 patent portfolio including key CRISPR-Cas9 patents in the United States and Europe relating to use of CRISPR-Cas9 in eukaryotic cells.

In addition, the Broad Institute portfolio includes filings relating to the use of the CRISPR-Cas9 system in prokaryotic cells, on which Drs. Marraffini and Zhang are co-inventors and Rockefeller and Broad are joint owners.

The Broad Institute and Rockefeller make CRISPR tools freely available to the academic and nonprofit communities and issue non-exclusive licenses for most types of commercial research. In July, 2017, the institutions joined discussions to create a worldwide CRISPR-Cas9 licensing pool. For human therapeutics, the Broad Institute places limits on exclusivity through its Inclusive Innovation model, which offers one licensee exclusive use for a defined period (two years), followed by an open call for applications by other groups. In the case of CRISPR-Cas9, the two-year exclusive period has already ended. Parties interested in licensing the technology are invited to apply through the Broad website.