Colossal Biosciences is making headlines with its bold initiative to bring back the woolly mammoth, but the venture raises significant ethical and legal questions. Professor Jacob Sherkow is quoted in a new article from the MIT Technology Review about the complexities surrounding intellectual property in de-extinction efforts. He notes that while natural animals cannot be […]
A drug label is a vital piece of information in patent cases, but a series of recent decisions from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit have changed how the court assesses claims. In a forthcoming article in the Stanford Law Review, Professor Jacob Sherkow calls this new confusion over labels “infringement by […]
Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. was a cultural phenomenon when the Supreme Court’s ruling was issued, with the outcome taking a place on the front-page of most major newspapers in the United States. Reflecting more than 10 years on from the decision, however, Professor Jacob Sherkow tells the Carl R. Woese Institute […]
Self-treatment is a risky and controversial choice, as detailed in a new Nature article about a cancer researcher who decided to do research and treat her own breast cancer. In the article, Professor Jacob Sherkow is quoted about the dangers of publishing this kind of work; his comments are also included in a story for […]
In September, Professor Jacob Sherkow delivered a presentation on the legal aspects of DNA sequencing cases to the New York Intellectual Property Law Association. His presentation, titled “Trade Secrets Committee Meeting: Litigating DNA Trade Secrecy,” covered whether DNA sequences are protectable by trade secrecy and if recent advances in DNA sequencing technology might destroy trade […]
A decade on from the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., Professor Jacob Sherkow argues that what seemed like a political and cultural phenomenon has had a much narrower impact. Writing as the first author in a new paper published in Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics, […]
The patent battle over CRISPR-Cas9 technology has gone on for longer than a decade, but continues to wind its way through the courts. The global CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing market size is expected to grow to $14.65 billion by 2032, and Professor Jacob Sherkow told BioSpace that companies seeking to license the technology may be content to […]
The practice of using “patent thickets,” which allow pharmaceutical companies to delay low-cost generic medicines reaching the market, is being targeted by a rule change proposed by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The change would reduce the number of terminal disclaimers, an important part of patent thickets, which offers the potential to speed the […]
Whether or not DNA sequences are subject to trade secrecy protections is the critical question examined by Professor Jacob Sherkow in his latest article, published in the Hastings Law Journal. Despite decades of scholarship assuming DNA sequences would be subject to protection, recent research has suggested this assumption was incorrect. Sherkow explores why DNA sequences […]
Professor Jacob Sherkow is one of only five University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign professors to be named a University Scholar in recognition of his excellence in teaching, scholarship and service. The scholars program recognizes faculty excellence and provides $15,000 to each scholar for three years to enhance their academic careers. The money may be used for […]