News from Abroad: European CVC CRISPR Patent Revoked Because of Invalid Priority Claim

From our Foreign Correspondents — While many patiently await developments in the pending U.S. interference proceedings relating to the CRISPR patents in the U.S., matters are progressing in Europe. The Opposition Division (OD) of the European Patent Office (EPO) has just issued (on June 29, 2021) its written decision in the case of EP3241902, owned by the University of California/Berkeley, the University of Vienna, and Emmanuelle Charpentier (collectively termed “CVC”). While the headline decision of the OD to revoke the patent was delivered orally at the hearing on April 13, 2021, the OD has now provided its detailed reasoning behind…