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A patent application, filed by disgraced stem cell scientist Woo Suk Hwang and colleagues and based on work now admitted to be fabricated, may nevertheless be granted, a New Scientist investigation has found.
Furthermore, the filing of the application could present a substantial obstacle to anyone seeking future patents in the same field.
The application was filed on 30 December 2003 by Hwang, along with 19 other researchers at Seoul National University. SNU has publicly apologised for Hwang_s misconduct, but it has not said whether it will voluntarily abandon all patents. University president Un-Chan Chung had not responded to New Scientist_s question on this at the time of publication.
Hwang's patent submission (in pdf format) stakes a claim in over 120 countries for a legal monopoly on the broad concept of _an embryonic stem cell (ESC) line derived from a nucleus-transferred oocyte prepared by transferring a nucleus of a human somatic cell into an enucleated human oocyte_. Or, in simple terms, an ESC line derived from a cloned human embryo _ a technique which, if achieved, could prove crucial to...
Furthermore, the filing of the application could present a substantial obstacle to anyone seeking future patents in the same field.
The application was filed on 30 December 2003 by Hwang, along with 19 other researchers at Seoul National University. SNU has publicly apologised for Hwang_s misconduct, but it has not said whether it will voluntarily abandon all patents. University president Un-Chan Chung had not responded to New Scientist_s question on this at the time of publication.
Hwang's patent submission (in pdf format) stakes a claim in over 120 countries for a legal monopoly on the broad concept of _an embryonic stem cell (ESC) line derived from a nucleus-transferred oocyte prepared by transferring a nucleus of a human somatic cell into an enucleated human oocyte_. Or, in simple terms, an ESC line derived from a cloned human embryo _ a technique which, if achieved, could prove crucial to...
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