The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation began its formal defense today of a patent issued nearly a decade ago to a University of Wisconsin professor, James Thomson, for his discovery of a technique for isolating and perpetuating human embryonic stem cells.
The foundation’s defense took the form of a filing in response to a decision in April by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to re-examine the patent, and two related ones, following a challenge by two public-interest groups.
In the 113-page filing, the foundation maintains that Mr. Thomson’s discoveries with human cells, for which a patent was issued in 1998, differed from those known at the time involving embryonic stem cells of mice or other mammals.
“It cannot be denied that Dr. Thomson made a landmark invention that was unknown, unpredictable, and long overdue in the art,” the foundation said in the filing. “Dr. Thomson’s invention embodies the very definition of a new and useful, novel, and non-obvious invention.” —Goldie Blumenstyk
