The challenge to the WARF/Jamie Thomson patents/IP on human embryonic stem cells (hESC) is at an end. The US Supreme Court declined to hear the case. Earlier, the USPTO had turned down the challenge leading to a winding road in the courts. What do you all think of this stem cell IP challenge and the outcome? The hESC IP includes 3 patents: 5,843,780, 6,200,806, and 7,029,913. For two great stories with helpful background on this development see here and here by David Jensen and Bradley Fikes, respectively. Scripps stem cell researcher Jeanne Loring was a driving force in the challenge.
embryonic stem cell patents
By Jeanne Loring. On Wednesday afternoon at the ISSCR meeting in Boston, Jamie Thomson gave a talk about the history of human pluripotent stem cells. There were probably only a dozen people in the audience of around 3,000 who were working on human ES cells around the same time that Jamie and Joseph Itskovitz-Eldor were collaborating on the first derivation of human ES cells, which was published in 1998. I found myself laughing (quietly- honest!) at Jamie’s recollections- Mike West approaching him to offer funding from Geron, WARF’s machinations, the aggressive attorneys, the national politics. I have to admit that …Read More