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Japanese Patent Office Upholds ERS Genomics CRISPR Patent

NEW YORK — ERS Genomics said on Wednesday that the Japanese Patent Office has rejected an invalidation challenge against a CRISPR patent maintained by the company, marking the second time the intellectual property has been upheld in that country.

The patent, JP6692856, was filed by CRISPR pioneer Emmanuelle Charpentier, the University of California, and the University of Vienna. It covers CRISPR-related compositions and methods for use in a variety of eukaryotic cells, in either dual-guide or single-guide format.

According to ERS, the Japanese Patent Office rejected challenges to the novelty and inventive step of the patent. Similar objections to the patent were rejected by the patent office in mid-2021. The European Patent Office also upheld a different ERS-controlled CRISPR patent in 2022.

Dublin-based ERS was founded to provide access to CRISPR-Cas9 patents held by Charpentier and shared with Jennifer Doudna, the University of California, and the University of Vienna. It is separate from CRISPR IP held by the Broad Institute.

Notably, in early 2022, the US Patent and Trademark Office found that Broad Institute patents covering CRISPR-Cas9 in eukaryotic cells have priority over similar IP held by Charpentier, the University of Vienna, and the University of California.