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Repairing cannot be patented. It will be rejected as "trivial" by the Patent Office. Yes, I know someone patented a "cure" for hemophilia which repairs the DNA
by hn_submit 2mo ago
Repairing cannot be patented. It will be rejected as "trivial" by the Patent Office.
Yes, I know someone patented a "cure" for hemophilia which repairs the DNA of said patient. But that's just because no other pharmaceutical thought it worth their while to fight the patent since the number of patients is small.
But I can guarantee you that a cancer cure patent that repairs the DNA will be fought in Court.
- Arainach 2mo ago"repairing DNA" isn't patentable, but "a mechanism for altering base pairs using <I won't insult actual chemists by pretending I know plausible terms here>" is absolutely patentable.
- hn_submit 2mo agoYou can call it anything you like but it's still the repairing of DNA. It will be contested in Court and the patent holder will lose.
- Arainach 2mo agoWhat's your source for this? This isn't how patent law works. You can't patent "repairing a road" but you can absolutely patent a new mechanism to do so. Most patents are of this form - there are far more patents for improved ways of doing things than initial ways of doing things.
- hn_submit 2mo agoYou cannot patent gene repair with CRISPR-CAS because that's long been patented (and also disputed by multiple entities). If several genes are faulty and I repair them what would be the innovation? The detection of a specific set of faulty genes? The order of repair? Big Pharma has long figured this out and I have inside knowledge from people who know that this is the reason they're not pursuing it. P.S.: Big Pharma is now quietly also researching gene repair but I believe it's to hedge their bets. Maybe they're counting on "lobbying"/bribing politicians to allow them to patent gene repair regardless.