At the time it seemed plausible that the first group to sequence the human genome could patent it. That's since been struck down in US patent case law. But it w

At the time it seemed plausible that the first group to sequence the human genome could patent it. That's since been struck down in US patent case law. But it was a real possibility. Although this was a race it's fun to note that both sides we're learning from the other and using resources produced by the other. The assembly techniques were worked out by Gene Myers for instance, who worked at Celera.