Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Commentary
  • Published:

The prevalence of patent interferences in gene technology

Nature Biotechnology volume 22, pages 153–154 (2004)Cite this article

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

Unlike all other countries in the world, the United States awards patents to the first to invent, not to the first to file an application for a patent. In cases where two or more inventors submit patent applications claiming the same invention, an interference may be declared. Interference is the process by which the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO; Washington, DC, USA) determines which of the applicants was the first to invent and diligently reduce the invention to practice. More than half of these are resolved in favor of the inventor who was the first-to-file, raising questions about whether this unique system is worth retaining1. Interferences are relatively rare. For the period 1998–2002, an average of four interferences were declared for every 10,000 patent applications filed.

Data we have gathered suggest that interference proceedings in gene discovery and biotechnology are much more prevalent than other areas of technology. The resulting legal fees are costing the biotechnology industry millions of dollars each year.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Access through your institution

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Lemley, M.A. & Chien, C.V. Hastings Law J. 54, 1335–1374 (2003).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Cook-Deegan, R. The Gene Wars: Science, Politics, and the Human Genome (W.W. Norton, New York, 1994).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Stevens, N.M. Studies in Spermatogenesis with Special Reference to the “Accessory Chromosome” Carnegie Institute Publication no. 36. (Carnegie Institute, Washington, DC, 1905).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Watson, J.D. The Double Helix; A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA (Atheneum, New York, 1968).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  5. Crewdson, J. Science Fictions: A Scientific Mystery, a Massive Cover-up, and the Dark Legacy of Robert Gallo (Little Brown & Company, Boston, 2002).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Gold, E.R. Lancet 361, 2002–2003 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Waldholz, M. Curing Cancer: The Story of the Men and Women Unlocking the Secrets of our Deadliest Illness (Simon & Schuster, New York, 1997).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Rubin, B. & Anderson, S.L. US Patent Application Number 20020168656.

  9. Slaugenhaupt, S. & Gusella, J.F. US Patent Application Number 20020169299.

  10. Merton, R. Proc. Am. Phil. Soc. 105, 470–486 (1971).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Henry, M.R., Cho, M.K., Weaver, M.A. & Merz, J.F. Science 297, 1279 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank the USPTO Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences and Public Affairs Office for providing data, and Mildred Cho, George Elliott, Robert Cook-Deegan and Rosemarie Ziedonis for comments. Sponsored by the Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues program of the National Human Genome Research Institute under grant no. R01HG02034.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania, 3401 Market Street, Suite 320, Philadelphia, 19104-3308, Pennsylvania, USA

    Jon F Merz & Michelle R Henry

Authors
  1. Jon F Merz
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Michelle R Henry
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jon F Merz.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Merz, J., Henry, M. The prevalence of patent interferences in gene technology. Nat Biotechnol 22, 153–154 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0204-153

Download citation

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0204-153

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing