2020 CRISPR patent landscape – where do we stand?

Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna just received a few hours ago the Nobel prize in Chemistry 2020 for “the development of a method of genome editing”, namely their 2012 discovery of the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors which basically enables to “cut and paste” DNA. This scientific discovery has fueled an unprecedented biotechnology development in the past 8 years. When we started to analyze the genome editing patent landscape in Spring 2014, there were only 96 patent families(*) in our records in relation with CRISPR. We have now more than 7400 in our latest records – and adding an average of 200 more every month in 2020. What does this data tell us on who has taken advantage in engineering new life sciences solutions out of this amazing scientific discovery, now confirmed worth a Nobel Prize?

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US inventor veterans at Intellectual Ventures are inventing around CRISPR gene editing

As both patent analysts and strategists, we like to look into the “weak signals” hidden behind the main trends of our landscapes, such as emerging design around solutions, original applications and new unexpected players entering the field.
In our latest update of our CRISPR patent landscape, we were surprised to discover a PCT patent application from a couple of senior inventors from Nathan Myhrvold’s team at Intellectual Ventures.
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