Harvard, MIT Again Win Right to CRISPR Tech Over Nobel Laureates

The lab notebook of Nobel Prize-winning scientists wasn’t enough for them to prove they invented a breakthrough gene-editing technology potentially worth millions of dollars before researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, according to a recent order.

The scientists’ notebook entry from March 2012 outlining the elements of a CRISPR-Cas9 system and their subsequent provisional patent application two months later demonstrate knowledge of some concepts, but not all to gain ownership of technology in a patent issued to competing scientists at the Broad Institute, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board said in a Thursday order.

Evidence brought ...