Editas Medicine announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office reaffirmed a prior decision favoring the Broad Institute in a CRISPR/Cas9 patent interference case on March 26, 2026. This outcome reinforces the company's intellectual property foundation for developing CRISPR/Cas9-based medicines, including EDIT-401.
Key takeaways
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office reaffirmed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's decision favoring the Broad Institute in the CRISPR/Cas9 patent interference on March 26, 2026.
The patent interference involves specific patents for CRISPR/Cas9 editing in human cells between CVC (University of California, University of Vienna, Emmanuelle Charpentier) and Broad (Broad Institute, MIT, Harvard University).
This is the PTAB's third favorable decision determining Broad was first to invent CRISPR/Cas9 for gene editing in eukaryotic cells, including human cells.
CVC retains the right to appeal the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
The CRISPR/Cas9 patents at issue are exclusively licensed to Editas Medicine for development and commercialization of CRISPR/Cas9-based medicines.
Editas Medicine's foundational intellectual property includes issued patents covering fundamental aspects of both CRISPR/Cas12a and CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing in all human cells.