Federal Circuit Clarifies Conception Standard For Inventorship, Vacates-in-part PTAB Judgment

In  Regents of the Univ. of Cal. v. Broad Inst., Inc., No. 2022-1594 (Fed. Cir. May 12, 2025), the Federal Circuit vacated in part a determination by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board in a patent interference proceeding, ruling that the Board incorrectly applied the legal standard for conception.

Both The Regents of the University of California ("Regents"), and The Broad Institute ("Broad") asserted priority of invention for patent claims relating to CRISPR-Cas9 Systems that contain a "single guide" RNA that edits or cleaves DNA in eukaryotic cells.

The Board awarded Broad priority based on an October 5, 2012, publication after rejecting Regents' earliest asserted conception date of March 1, 2012, and reduction to practice date of August 9, 2012, based on Regents' statements of uncertainty about whether its experiments would translate to human cells.