CVC maintains strong US patent portfolio covering CRISPR/Cas9 despite PTAB ruling, reports ERS Genomics

DUBLIN, March 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ERS Genomics announced today that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board ("PTAB") confirmed that its decision regarding priority of invention between the Broad Institute and the University of California, the University of Vienna, and Emmanuelle Charpentier (collectively, CVC) was focused on single-guide CRISPR/Cas9 systems in eukaryotic cells, and has no impact on any of CVC's granted US foundational patents that cover compositions and uses of CRISPR/Cas9 in all settings, including eukaryotic cells.

The PTAB decision makes a clear distinction between the CVC applications involved in the interference and CVC's large portfolio of issued US patents that were not involved in this interference, stating that;

"There is no dispute in this proceeding that the CVC inventors conceived of a generic sgRNA CRISPR-Cas9 system by 1 March 2012 and we note that CVC's patent rights to that invention are not at issue here." Decision pg 49.

CVC retains its patent rights in over 40 issued US patents that were never involved in this interference. These patents cover a variety of compositions and methods for CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing, including dual-guide and single-guide formats.

"We are disappointed in the PTAB's decision and are evaluating our options along with the CVC stakeholders in regard to a potential appeal," commented Michael Arciero, Vice-President of Intellectual Property and Commercial Development of ERS Genomics.

In addition to its substantial portfolio of granted CRISPR/Cas9 patents in the US, CVC maintains fundamental CRISPR/Cas9 patents in over 80 countries including the EU, China, Japan and elsewhere.  Eric Rhodes, CEO of ERS Genomics said; "We remain convinced that the compositions, methods and techniques in the CVC portfolio of patents are the essential intellectual property for the practice of CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing."

About ERS Genomics

ERS Genomics is a biotechnology company based in Dublin, Ireland. The company was formed to provide broad access to the foundational CRISPR/Cas9 intellectual property held by Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier. Non-exclusive licenses are available for research and sale of products and services across multiple fields including: research tools, kits, reagents; discovery of novel targets for therapeutic intervention; cell lines for discovery and screening of novel drug candidates; GMP production of healthcare products; companion animal and livestock health; production of industrial materials such as enzymes, biofuels and chemicals; and synthetic biology.

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