A disputed stem-cell patent held by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation was upheld Thursday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The patent was one of three held by WARF under review.

The decision to uphold the patent is raising questions about the future of stem-cell patent disputes as well as Wisconsin’s future in the biotech industry.

“It’s hard to say,” President of Wisconsin Stem Cell Now Inc. Ed Fallone said of future patent disputes. “It is an issue that will continue to be controversial.”

Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, is optimistic about what the ruling could mean for the biotechnology industry in the state of Wisconsin.

“The stem cell industry is expected to reach $10 billion a year by 2016. Wisconsin’s goal is to attract ten percent of that,” Still said. “Because of patents and our research team, we have a very good chance at that.”

Fallone said that these patents would not necessarily preclude other groups from doing research, but they will ensure that Wisconsin remains a player in the industry.

Still likened the Wisconsin stem-cell industry to a “loss leader” in marketing because its visibility attracts other areas of biotechnology to the state.

Both men agree that the potential outcomes of stem-cell research are far more important than the controversies that surround it.

“[The issue is] more about what should be the nation’s policy toward doing research and developing cures using human genetic material,” Fallone said. “The patent issue is beside [the] point.”

According to Still, the medical advances being made using stem cell research will allow humans to live longer, more productive and more comfortable lives.

“The work going on here will be looked back on in twenty years as changing the future of medicine,” Still said.