As reported earlier, signs that a CRISPR patent pool could be on the horizon have been appearing over the past few months. The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard has now confirmed that it has joined discussions to create a non-exclusive CRISPR-Cas9 joint licensing pool to be coordinated by MPEG LA, an organisation that operates patent pool licensing programs across institutions and countries.

However, the University of California, Berkeley, the other key CRISPR patent owner, has not yet made a similar announcement and so its participation in any future pool remains an outstanding question. Depending on the outcomes of the various ownership and validity challenges to the Broad and UoC patents around the globe, this stance of the UoC means the future of an effective CRISPR patent pool remains uncertain.

Watch this space for further news on this topic.

“A patent pool would create a one-stop shop for commercial users to license CRISPR patents without needing to navigate a complex patent and licensing landscape”

https://www.broadinstitute.org/news/broad-institute-mit-and-harvard-joins-discussions-create-worldwide-crispr-cas9-licensing-pool