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The battle over foundational CRISPR-Cas9 patent rights has reached another milestone. In March 2026, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) reaffirmed its priority determination in favor of the Broad Institute in Interference No. 106,115, concluding once again that the CVC group — comprising the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Vienna, and scientists including Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier — failed to establish prior conception of a working CRISPR-Cas9 system in eukaryotic cells.…

Continue Reading PTAB Reaffirms Broad Institute Priority in CRISPR-Cas9 Interference No. 106, 115: What the Decision Signals for Biotech Innovation and Patent Strategy

The first half of 2025 has brought many changes at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”), including policy changes at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”). At the end of March 2025, the issuance of the Interim Procedure for Discretionary Denials in AIA Post-Grant Proceedings with Parallel District Court Litigation memorandum (the…

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) recently designated its decision in Cambridge v. Sfara (IPR2024-00952) as an informative decision.[1] This designation addresses an important issue in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings: inconsistent claim construction arguments between district court litigation and PTAB petitions.

Claim Construction Inconsistency

The PTAB’s holding centered on Petitioner’s proposed construction…

The Federal Circuit’s holding in United Servs. Auto. Ass’n v. PNC Bank N.A., No. 2023-2171, 2025 WL 339662 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 30, 2025) reversed a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) decision finding no motivation to combine.  The opinion is nonprecedential, but the Federal Circuit’s analysis of the facts in light of recent precedent…

On Friday, February 28, 2025, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced the withdrawal of the June 2022 memorandum titled “Interim Procedure for Discretionary Denials in AIA Post-Grant Proceedings with Parallel District Court Litigation,” which had been issued by former USPTO Director Kathi Vidal.

The 2022 Memorandum was intended to clarify the Patent…

On January 27, 2025, the Federal Circuit held that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) “has jurisdiction over IPRs concerning expired patents.” See Apple Inc. v. Gesture Tech. Partners, LLC, 2025 WL 299939, *2 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 27, 2025).

Background and Procedural History

Apple, the inter partes review (“IPR”) petitioner, filed an IPR…