California nonprofit groups had argued research foundation claimed too much credit for process.
Sacramento Bee (California)
An ongoing fight over embryonic stem cell research rights has tilted in favor of two nonprofit groups pressing to revoke three key patents held by a Wisconsin research foundation.
The U.S. Patent Office on Monday said that the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation overreached by asserting patents covering the process that University of Wisconsin researchers used to isolate week-old embryonic stem cells.
The decision, which can be appealed, has financial implications for California.
Taxpayers three years ago approved $3 billion in state bonds to fund stem cell research.
The measure, Proposition 71, is being challenged in the courts.
“But what this means for researchers in California and elsewhere is that they don’t have to put up the mortgage to conduct their research,” said Jamie Court, president of the Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, one of the nonprofit groups in the middle of the patent fight. “It’s a great day for science.”
Embryonic stem cells can mature into any kind of cell in the body, making them particularly alluring to some scientists seeking cures for everything from Parkinson’s disease to spinal cord injuries.
The alumni research foundation exists to market University of Wisconsin innovations for “the benefit of the university, the inventors and society,” according to its Web site. It required researchers to negotiate licenses for any embryonic stem cell research using the university’s process and asserted royalty rights to proceeds from any cures that licensed researchers developed.
The taxpayer and consumer rights group and the New York-based Public Patent Foundation in July argued that the patents, which don’t apply outside the United States, impeded scientific progress and were driving vital stem cell research overseas.
The nonprofit organizations also claimed that university researcher James Thomson’s work was unpatentable because he used stem cell isolation methods that merely built on prior scientific research.
Amid growing criticism, the research foundation in January said it would not make scientists negotiate a license, including scientists at California’s stem cell institute and its grantees. However, the foundation said it would retain its right to claim royalties from commercialized stem cell therapies developed using state funding. The nonprofit groups responded by continuing their challenge.
The Wisconsin research foundation has two months to appeal the ruling.
