By Doug Macron

The US Patent and Trademark Office may "very shortly" give notice that it plans to award the country's first patent on an application from the Tuschl-I intellectual property estate, according to court documents filed earlier this month by the Max Planck Institute and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals.

As a result, they have asked for a court order effectively stopping the issuance of the patent until an ongoing lawsuit over the IP can play out.