PTAB Reaffirms Broad’s Priority In CRISPR-Cas9 Interference

In Regents of the University of California v. Broad Institute, Inc., Patent Interference No. 106,115, Paper 2915 (P.T.A.B. Mar. 26, 2026), the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“Board”), on remand from the Federal Circuit, reaffirmed that the Broad Institute, Inc., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and President and Fellows of Harvard College (“Broad”) have priority over The Regents of the University of California, University of Vienna, and Emmanuelle Charpentier (“CVC”) with respect to a single-RNA CRISPR-Cas9 system that functions in eukaryotic cells.

Because both parties filed their applications before the America Invents Act, priority was governed by first-to-invent principles. In an interference, the first party to reduce the invention to practice prevails unless the later party proves an earlier conception and diligence from the date of the first party’s reduction to practice to the date of its own. The Board had previously held that CVC was not entitled to the benefit of its