The United States Patent and Trademark Office decided Thursday to uphold the terms of one of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation’s three previously contested stem-cell patents.
The approved patent, “913,” which describes the replication of in-vitro culturing of human embryonic stem cells, and two other patents still under investigation were created to protect UW-Madison stem-cell researcher James Thomson’s work.
Thomson was the first person to isolate and culture human embryonic stem cells, which he did in 1998. Prior to that, Thomson cultured primate embryonic stem cells.
All three patents were issued between 1995 and 2001 for these stem-cell discoveries. In April 2007, the Public Patent Foundation and the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights joined to ask the patent office to re-examine their validity.
“We think they are inappropriate and never should have been issued. We believe that while Jamie Thompson did significant work, it didn’t meet the requirement of being new and non-obvious,” said John Simpson, a spokesperson for the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights.
“Many people in the stem-cell research community felt that WARF was aggressively asserting the patents and hindering research.”
Jill Ladwig, spokesperson for WARF, said the allegations that the patents impeded research were “ludicrous” because Wisconsin has shipped the stem cells to hundreds of researchers around the world in 25 countries and 40 states.
Simpson said the patent office’s decision to uphold Patent 913 is merely a part of the circle of “non-final action” because his office plans to pursue further re-examination.
“We will repeal this particular patent through the Patent Office Board of Appeals, which frequently overturns decisions made by examiners,” he said.
Nevertheless, WARF views the decision to uphold the terms of Patent 913 as a single victory in its ongoing effort to have all three patents accepted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
“It confirms what we’ve believed all along, which is that Dr. Thomson’s inventions are patentable—we’ve always believed that and we still, of course, believe that,” Ladwig said.
