The legal battle over who invented the powerful gene-editing tool isn't likely to dim hopes for better crops and powerful new medical treatments.
Last week a panel of judges at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Virginia, heard arguments as to who should own the rights to the century's biggest biotechnology invention to date, a precise gene-editing system called CRISPR-Cas9 that has the potential to treat serious human genetic disorders and create designer crops that resist drought and pathogens.