On Mar. 1, 2022, the Patent and Trial Appeal Board of the U.S .Patent and Trademark Office issued its decision in the interference proceeding relating to the use of the foundational CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing system in eukaryotic cells, that is, plants and animals.

The interference was between patent applications owned by The Regents of the University of California, the University of Vienna and Emmanuelle Charpentier and patents and patent applications owned by the Broad Institute, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The PTAB decision held that Broad scientists were the first to invent the use of CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing in eukaryotic cells. As a result of this decision, the CVC patent applications involved in this interference was not granted.